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Podcast 483

Political Depression. To close out March, 2016 after a quick review of this week’s headlines, one can only conclude we’re in a Political Depression. It’s depressing to read about and depressing to talk about. Yet, there are compelling developments to talk about. On the heels of the Marco Rubio announcement that he will not release ‘his’ delegates to the RNC on the first ballot, and a letter from a North Dakota Republican National Convention Official which states that the delegates are not bound, even on the first ballot, the time has come once again to remind listeners and voters you have not been caucusing and voting for presidential candidates for 2016. The people who will choose the 2016 nominee are the delegates to the national convention, chosen by congressional district. So, in Minnesota if you left the caucus after casting your straw poll votes, and did not get a chance to go to the BPOU convention, and then onto the congressional district convention where you might have been chosen as a delegate to the RNC, you were wasting your time. In fact, people voting in the primary elections on both sides of the political spectrum appear to have been wasting their time, since both party ‘establishment’ structures have taken pains to point out the delegates choose the candidates, and the party bosses have that well in hand. Are we going to be saying hello to a Bush running against a Clinton, or a retreat of 2012 for the RNC, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan? The next waypoint in this process will be when we get to the end of the primary and caucus process which ends sometime around June. If Ted Cruz or Donald Trump do not get the required number of 1237 delegates – enough to win a vote on the first ballot – the convention will be thrown into chaos. What does the Republican Party stand for? Once the general election gets underway, its going to become quite clear how much damage this cycle’s primary season has done to the republican party. What about the future? What do republicans stand for? Are they free trade or protectionist? Big government or limited government? Driven by religion, or open minded? Will republicans give up and just allow party officials to dictate to them who to vote for, or will they finally start working on on building a real grassroots political movement? Time will tell. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul, X Government Cars and Pride of Homes Real Estate.

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Podcast 481

Ted Cruz Denies Affairs. The tabloid that has a history of breaking lurid stories about the affairs of politicians and public personalities is on the hot seat with a new story about Senator Ted Cruz. The National Enquirer story alleges the presidential hopeful has had extra marital affairs with five women. Though the women’s faces were obscured in the tabloid story, two of the women have been allegedly identified as staffers for Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina and at various times Senator Cruz. Moreover there’s also evidence of a Cruz associated PAC which donated a half a million dollars to the Fiorina campaign. If that donation was ‘hush money’ as has been alleged, a far more serious allegation could be leveled against Cruz since the candidates aren’t supposed to have anything to do with PACs. Ted Cruz Denies Affairs. Senator Cruz says the story is a lie, says it was shopped to other outlets, all orchestrated by Donald Trump, since he is ‘friends’ with the publisher of the National Enquirer (based in West Palm Beach, by the way, where Trump has a residence and resort.) Trump says he had nothing to do with the story. Truth is, this ‘story’ has been floating around political and reporters circles for months, and has been talked about on twitter under #thething for at least weeks. Is it true? No one knows. Was it Trump? No one knows. It could have been Trump, but recent developments suggest former elements of the Rubio campaign shopped the story. Could have been Republican establishment types terrified of a Trump nomination, as well as a Cruz nomination, looking to clip both candidates before three critical primaries in the coming weeks in Wisconsin, New York and Pennsylvania. It could have been the Cruz campaign looking to get out in front of a potential scandal and turn it back on their number one rival, the Trump campaign. No one knows, and no one will know until the story is disproven, retracted, or the women in question come forward. At least one of them, Amanda Carpenter, passionately and vehemently denies it. Don’t put it past the establishment to do something like this. Politics gets ugly, and there are so many more months of campaigning to go. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing of Saint Paul, Pride of Homes and Hydrus.

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Podcast 468

South Carolina’s Vote. The big first in the south primary is over, and the undisputed winner is New York’s Donald J. Trump. What must have made Trump’s night, Governor Jeb Bush suspended his presidential campaign. More ‘suspensions’ are sure to follow as actual votes, upend story lines, predictions and prognostications. Meanwhile Hillary Clinton defeated Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in the Nevada Caucuses. Will it make any difference for the Vermont Senator’s chances to defeat the former Secretary of State this week in the Democrat South Carolina primary? Probably not. Caucuses are completely different animals from primaries, where people actually vote. Let’s not forget on the GOP side, Ted Cruz won the Iowa Caucus, but lost to Trump in New Hampshire and South Carolina. As the news rolled over the wires, I took a little bit of time outside a hotel where a huge celebration was taking place, to make some observations about the race, the presidential primary systems, and the difference between traditions, law, and a written constitution. Are you ready to have traditions — not the constitution — fundamentally change the way the United States chooses its president? Between the tradition of state by state primaries, a grueling campaign effort that wastes money and winnows candidacies and efforts to slave the Electoral College not to state legislatures but to the popular vote — and by ‘constitutionalist republicans’ no less — how we elect a president is changing, and judging from this primary cycle’s wacky, craven, foolish, disgusting and sad efforts by politicians described by the same kinds of words, not for the better. IS the cream rising to the top? Good question. Also in this podcast, the first excerpt of the Bob Davis Podcast Radio show, heard on GCN Live. Expect an announcement regarding this new show around the beginning of March. We’re in Key West Florida for this podcast, getting some maintenance on Mobile Podcast Command and preparing for the next leg of this massive road trip, which takes us back up Florida’s Gulf Coast, the Red Neck Riveria to New Orleans, Texas, back up 35 to Minneapolis-Saint Paul. Sponsored by X Government Cars and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul.

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