Clinton, Bloomberg will not run for President

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Hillary Clinton said she wouldn’t run for president in 2020 but vowed to keep speaking out as she lamented how polarized the country had become.

“I’m not running, but I’m going to keep working and speaking and standing up for what I believe,” Clinton told News 12 Westchester in an interview.

“I’m going to do everything I can to help Democrats win back the White House,” she said.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Tuesday he will not run for president in 2020, concluding he could better use his considerable resources on political activism than on a campaign in an ever-expanding Democratic field.

"I believe I would defeat Donald Trump in a general election. But I am clear-eyed about the difficulty of winning the Democratic nomination in such a crowded field," Bloomberg wrote in an opinion piece posted to Bloomberg, the eponymous news site he founded.

Bloomberg said that despite calls for him to run, and despite his previous political success in winning New York City's mayoral race three times, he believes he can effect more change in the country by "doubling down on the work that I am already leading and funding" instead of "talking about my ideas and record, knowing that I might never win the Democratic nomination."

"I'm fortunate enough to be in a position to devote the resources needed to bring people together and make a big difference," wrote Bloomberg, a billionaire who has launched campaigns on issues including gun control and climate change. Bloomberg also contributed $100 million in the 2018 election cycle to support Democrats.

But instead of directly challenging Mr. Trump for the presidency, Bloomberg said in his opinion piece he would focus on a campaign called "Beyond Carbon," which aims to phase out use of coal by 2030, and create a "100 percent clean energy economy."

Bloomberg said he would also continue to focus his resources in combating gun violence, opioid addiction and high college tuition. He said he believed change was more likely to occur outside Washington than by the Capitol and the White House.

That means she's been promised a big job

Maybe, maybe not ... it DOES mean that Trump may not have it so easy in the next election as he did in the last one.

Well that's a relief...

Senator Sherrod Brown, the populist Ohio Democrat known for extolling the “dignity of work,” announced Thursday that he would not seek the Democratic nomination for president, ceding the primary field to other left-leaning candidates with broader national appeal.

His exit comes as better-known Democrats like former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. prepare to announce their own plans for 2020, and as the field itself has swelled to 14 candidates, including fellow liberal senators like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

Allies of Mr. Brown said on Thursday that his decision to forgo a 2020 bid had nothing to do with the signs that Mr. Biden is preparing to enter the race. Rather, they said, Mr. Brown ultimately resolved that he was content in the Senate and lacked the consuming drive to become president. And there were obvious practical obstacles to the 2020 nomination for a 66-year-old white man with a mix of liberal and moderate views and a relatively modest donor base. Indeed, for Mr. Brown, the popularity and fund-raising strength of Mr. Sanders, a fellow populist, were obstacles that were at least as big as any Mr. Biden might present.

Speaking to reporters between votes in the Capitol on Thursday, Mr. Brown quickly noted that he “didn’t have a lifelong ambition to be president.” Though he argued that there was a “path for me,” highlighting his progressive credentials, he said he felt tugged to remain in the Senate, a job he relishes more than some of his colleagues who covet the presidency.

Mr. Brown, who was a finalist in the 2016 vice-presidential sweepstakes, also dismissed the prospect of serving in that role in 2020 but said whoever the nominee is should compete for Ohio. “I’m not even interested in thinking about that,” he said about the vice presidency.

Some Democrats had seen Mr. Brown as a compelling possibility, even in a packed Democratic contest, because he was the only major Democrat last November to win a statewide seat in Ohio. The bet was that his success in a Republican-leaning battleground state would translate to broad support.