My Comments: On one hand, there are already too many candidates in the Democratic Party run for President. On the other hand, Michael Bloomberg has skills I think are missing among some of the other candidates.

I’ve long argued that immigrants are necessary for us to maintain an economic advantage on the global stage going forward. I recognize my bias since I’m an immigrant and naturalized citizen.

I don’t worry about the few that are bad people and will no doubt cause problems for law enforcement in the years ahead. We’ve had people like that since day one, people born here going back over two centuries.

I do worry that without an infusion of people motivated and hungry to succeed in life, this nation will suffer. Life does not stand still; you’re either moving forward or you’re going backward and I have no interest in reinventing the past. I can only observe the present and attempt to influence the future.

The fact that Michael Bloomberg has expressed a willingness to understand our need for immigrants is going to make me take another look at his candidacy. I agree that having another billionaire candidate, but I’m OK with adding his name to the mix.

By Jonathan J. Cooper \ 26 NOV 19 \ https://tinyurl.com/v6f69f4

Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday that the United States needs “an awful lot more immigrants rather than less.”

On his second day campaigning for the Democratic nomination, the former New York City mayor contrasted his views on immigration with President Donald Trump’s restrictive policies and laid out a vision of a multicultural society enriched by immigrants.

“We need immigrants to take all the different kinds of jobs that the country needs — improve our culture, our cuisine, our religion, our dialogue and certainly improve our economy,” the billionaire told reporters at a Mexican restaurant in Phoenix.

He blasted Trump’s policies that resulted in the separation of families arriving on the border.

“Ripping kids away from their parents is a disgrace,” he said.

Bloomberg reiterated his Nov. 17 apology for supporting New York’s stop-and-frisk police strategy, a practice that he embraced as mayor and continued to defend despite its disproportionate impact on people of color.

He said it was a mistake but also credited it with reducing New York’s murder rate.

“How many times do you hear elected officials say, ‘I made a mistake’?” Bloomberg said. “None of us do everything perfectly. I’m sorry it happened, I can’t rewrite history. Let’s get on with it.”

Bloomberg spoke in the back of a small restaurant in a heavily Latino area a few miles east of downtown Phoenix, the type of community that has helped propel Democrats to success after decades of Republican domination in Arizona. Latinos organized against a tough 2010 immigration law and against Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s immigration patrols, the latter of which was struck down in the courts for racial profiling.

Arizona has received scant attention form the Democrats running for president, but Bloomberg has put a heavy focus in a state he said will be crucial to the general election. It’s one of four states where his campaign said it’s pouring $100 million into anti-Trump digital ads, and one of five where the campaign says it will push to register voters.