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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Podcast 397

Levy Trump and Cecil. No, it’s not a law firm. No it’s not a children’s book. How today’s news cycle obsessions can become tomorrow’s forgotten story. What is worth your time? From MH-370 to Ebola today’s lead story is tomorrow’s forgotten junk, to be thrown out with the pizza box from last week, and the recycling. Today’s obsessions include a lion who has attained personhood by virtue of a name and a graphic demise at the hands of a opportunistic hunter, who happens to be a dentist from the suburbs of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, and a political candidate who is the leading republican, according to the polls. You’re not allowed to criticize Trump, or you’ll be blocked or shouted down. Fortunately for those who support the New York real estate and casino developer, former TV reality show host and purveyor of Miss America and Miss Universe beauty pageants, there is no criticism of the candidate himself. Oddly enough, people who claim the polls are rigged, also claim the polls show Trump to be the best chance for Republicans to win the 2016 presidential race. Yes, people are making wild claims about Trump’s potential for success. If republicans and the country wants him, fine. But let’s take a look at polling, political polling and the foibles of making predictions about a presidential race which is yet to gel. Not only are there fifty state primary elections or caucuses to get through, there are actually fifty state elections that make up the Presidential election itself. What about Trump as a third party candidate? Minnesota’s Jessie Ventura is offered up as an example. How does one state’s gubernatorial race in the 90’s predict a win for ‘The Donald’ in a three way presidential race? Does it? What about Ross Perot’s experience in the 1990’s. The media spurs uniformed speculation driven by polls that cannot and do not predict Trump’s, or anyone else’s performance in an election more than a year from now. It’s time for a frank discussion about political polling and its limitations, aside from allowing Cable TV news the opportunity to show graphics and charts and make baseless announcements about front-runners and ‘winners’. As far as Republicans are concerned, no matter who is nominated it’s going to be very tough to build a winning election organization with people who are frustrated, angry and scared of the future, and who have not demonstrated an ability to organize, work with each other, or get out the vote in the recent past. Republicans seem to be looking for a personality to lead them out of the wilderness, rather than take it upon themselves to start solving problems and present a viable agenda. Not a good omen for the 2016 cycle. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. 

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Podcast 395

Simple Solutions. On the campaign trail, it all sounds so easy. ‘Take the fight to ISIS’, ‘Take from the rich, give to the poor’, ‘Make America Great Again’, ‘Fix the economy!’, and so on. Lots of barnstormers mostly rolling through Iowa hayfields, standing at picnics, throwing out bromides and quick fixes for whatever ails the nation. With so many politicians, suddenly all our problems seem, well solvable. We want our foreign policy ‘problems’ and economic problems solved as quickly as we reorder a latte, or another salad with the right dressing. When things don’t work smoothly, we throw a tantrum and demand fixes right now. In political theater we want sound bite solutions and we want problems solved preferably before the end of the show. There isn’t anything a podium pounding politician or talk show host can’t solve, dammit! Just send in the special forces, give everyone a tax cut, shut down the border, open up the economy, light up the Russians and the Chinese and well, make American Great Again. Right? The latest ‘truth tellers’ don’t really propose any solutions, they propose more rhetoric. Who’s to blame? We are. We don’t want to know how complex our problems might be. We don’t want to know how difficult they are to solve, when it comes to corralling 435 Congressmen, 100 Senators, countless cabinet secretaries, experts, lawyers, Supreme Court Justices, and the media. We just want someone to tell us what we want to hear. Send in a few hundred ‘special forces guys’ to take care of ISIS, or a B-1 Bomber. Fix the economy. Cure the moral character. And shut those liberals up while you’re at it. What this country needs is a businessman! What this country needs is a General! What this country needs is (fill in the blank). What this country needs is a grown up electorate. Given a steady diet of onion rings, Fox News (or CNN), or the Daily Beast and Buzz Feed, what are the chances that will happen? Sponsored by X Government Cars. 

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