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A no good, very bad night for Bloomberg

Mike Bloomberg has spent over $400 million during his ascent in the polls for the Democratic nomination. But money apparently couldn’t save the billionaire from a widely panned performance at last night’s presidential debate. It was like “the gap between an influencer marketing campaign and putting an actual product in front of reviewers,” as Nilay Patel of The Verge put it. (As a professional tech reviewer, he knows what he’s talking about.)

Mr. Bloomberg didn’t seem prepared. “His meek rebuttals seemed to inspire a wider reckoning among his peers, who slashed and bickered with an eagerness the race had not seen before,” Matt Flegenheimer of the NYT writes. He did get in a jab at Senator Bernie Sanders, though: “What a wonderful country we have. The best-known socialist in the country happens to be a millionaire with three houses. What did I miss here?”

How the other candidates whacked Mr. Bloomberg:

• Senator Elizabeth Warren: “I’d like to talk about who we’re running against: a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians, and no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump.”

• Joe Biden: “The fact of the matter is, he has not managed his city very — very well when he was there. He didn’t get a lot done.”