Strib, carrying an AP feed: "Bloomberg’s rivals have already indicated they will lean into his explosive comments on race and gender in addition to their charge that he’s using a fortune earned from a career on Wall Street in an effort to buy the presidency. Bloomberg’s rise in national polls has been fueled almost exclusively by an unprecedented national advertising campaign, carefully controlled campaign events and a sprawling national organization that has likely already cost him more than half a billion dollars."

Link. The headline paragraph of the Feb. 19, 2020, AP item immediately precedes this:

Alexandra Rojas, executive director of the Sanders-allied Justice Democrats, called Wednesday Bloomberg’s first “public moment of accountability.”

“It’s going to be a chance to finally bring scrutiny to Bloomberg’s record as a Republican plutocrat,” she said.

Bloomberg's team was working to lower expectations ahead of his performance, suggesting his debate skills are rusty after more than a decade since his last election.

Bloomberg hasn’t been on a debate stage since 2009. His team notes he never faced more than one rival at a time over three elections for New York City mayor.

Despite the challenges, senior adviser Tim O’Brien signaled that Bloomberg welcomed a fight against Sanders, whom the campaign perceives to be the race’s clear front-runner.

“I think you’re going to see us go toe-to-toe with Bernie Sanders on important issues,” O’Brien said in an interview, raising questions about Sanders’ personal wealth, record on criminal justice and gun control.

Sanders welcomed the fight as well.

It made me recall O'Brien in 1984. His name is his name, but the mind made the association - so far no Winston Smith on the Bloomberg payroll, as it's been reported. Ministry of Rewriting History types may gravitate to political consultancy buck chasing, and that was Winston's bureau.

This post limited its focus to a part of the Strib/AP item. If one were to speculate how this Bernie-Bloomberg press puffery stuff is like the publicity ramp-up to the Ali - Wepner fight - which will end up like Ali, which like Wepner?