1. What percent approval rating did Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg receive in the latest poll?

2. Tonight’s will be the 9th Democratic presidential primary debate. How many debates and primaries has Bloomberg participated in since joining the presidential primary race?

3. Bloomberg skipped the first four voting state’s primaries (Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina) in favor of what strategy?

4. What top issues does Bloomberg hope to present to voters during tonight’s debate?

5. List the Democratic candidates who have qualified for tonight’s debate.

6. The Democratic candidates have pointed out that Bloomberg the billionaire is buying his way to try to become the nominee and that this is not fair. What do you think?

CHALLENGE:

Michael Bloomberg has spent $400 million of his own money on campaign ads. He has not accepted donations to avoid qualifying for debates thus far.

Now that the DNC has dropped the donation threshold requirement and only requires over 10% support in the polls for a candidate to qualify for the debates, Bloomberg qualifies for the debate.

The AP reporters note that Bloomberg is “still using a teleprompter to deliver his short stump speeches, and he rarely takes questions directly from voters” while campaigning.

Videos and lawsuits have surfaced that opponents say show Bloomberg as out-of-touch, elitist, racist, sexist. He insults farmers and says elderly people won’t be eligible for life-saving medical treatment. Opponents want to challenge him on these questions.

Watch the debate.
a) List the questions asked.
b) Do you think the moderators asked challenging questions to Bloomberg - and/or to the other candidates?
c) Were the questions fair to each candidate?
d) How did Bloomberg respond to each? (satisfactorily or not? - Explain)
e) Who do you think won the debate? Why?