Podcast 433

Voting Surprises. Elections held on November 3rd, 2015 show the potential for voters to surprise and even shock media, pundits and commentators. Is a Tea-Party Republican victory in the Kentucky Governor’s race a harbinger of surprises to come once people start actually voting in the primaries and caucuses starting February 1st, 2016? Voters in Ohio rejected legalizing Marijuana, Democrats in Virginia lost their bid to gain control of the State Senate, and LGBT rights legislation failed in Houston, Texas. Is this a conservative voting trend? The next actual election is November 21st in Louisiana, where polls say a Democrat is favored to win the bid to replace Republican Governor Bobby Jindal. Is the chattering class underestimating the possibility that conservative voters could show up in large numbers, shifting the country to the right. Same question applies to the grip of establishment republicans on power in the GOP. It is dangerous to believe polls, especially this early in the process. When it comes to real political science, the proof is in the pudding. If there is a trend of angry voters on the right turning out, the punditry is going to be caught flat footed, but the establishment republicans will be shocked. One gets the impression, reporters and commentators covering these elections hear so many stump speeches and have so much red meat thrown at them they get jaded when it comes to the degree of frustration of ordinary voters. The turmoil on the right is a storm brewed up by svengali strategists at the RNC who expected to crown Jeb Bush the nominee. Now Trump, Carson and Cruz threaten the whole house of cards, demanding their own rules for debates or upsetting the carefully constructed plan. Outliers Trump and Sanders on the left are shaking up the status quo and challenging the idea that suzerains in Washington get to decide who the nominee will be on either side. In the real news, things don’t seem to be going so well and the commentariat continues to write tripe. The GDP only ‘grew’ 1.5 percent, but don’t worry growth is expected when consumers, ‘spending the savings from lower gas prices like a tax cut’ finally kicks in. A new study done by Democrat Operatives that says Mergers and Acquisitions are causing ‘inequality’. Is this true? Meanwhile Congressional Republicans lift the debt ceiling and federal spending jumped by 338 billion dollars. Maybe they should be talking about cutting spending rather than cutting taxes? Sponsored by Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. 

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Podcast 401

Back To School. At some point in our childhood, most of us remember looking up somewhere around the middle of August and realizing we only had two or three weeks left in the summer. We’re getting that old back-to-school feeling at the Bob Davis Podcasts. Somewhere around this time, you’d end up at The Gap, or JC Penny, or Sears buying your new sneakers, jeans and shirts. You’d bring them back home, and try them on, and they’d feel like cardboard, and you’d be grateful for the few waning days or weeks of summer. This has been a great summer of events in the Mobile Podcast Command Unit, covering some politics in Wisconsin and Iowa, the EAA Air Show, Sturgis and heading up to North Central Wisconsin to hang out with old friends. Now it’s time to re-engage in the political sphere. And yet, it feels … dirty. In this walk and talk podcast late on a Sunday night, with the buzz of bugs and power lines in the neighborhood, some final thoughts about summer and some thoughts about what awaits us ahead. That feeling that we are at the end of a political and social era, perhaps even the end of a cycle of history is almost … palpable. Scanning and reading up on the news brings the conclusion that despite the carnival barkers in the echo chamber who urge you to follow the bouncing ball (which is what they’re doing), we may remember this time as that moment before … rather than a time that contained anything of any real lasting value. While the circus rages on, and the ‘pundits’ work harder and harder to predict the future based on someone’s email, or someone’s blathering on yet another Sunday morning talk show no one watched, or someone getting shouted off the stage, or someone’s latest studied plan to solve some earth shattering national problem, one gets the impression 99 percent  of this isn’t going to matter this time next year. One thing is for sure, something is coming and no one can predict it. Thank God there’s still time to sit in the sun and read a book about something … anything else. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. 

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