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.

Podcast 472

Texas. That’s all you need to say. Texas. We start on the Texas Gulf Coast at Galveston and work our way up to Beaumont, Houston, on through central Texas with an eye toward La Grange, Austin, Waco and finally to Dallas. If you woke up in one of these places, even any of the smaller towns along the way, you would know, you could only be in Texas. Along the way, lots of stories from this Road Trip so far, including the drive up the Gulf Coast through Mississippi and Alabama, and Louisiana, ending in New Orleans on Saturday night, where Mobile Podcast Command was forced to break the law, in service of a cup of chicory coffee and a pastry from Cafe Dumonde. Sadly, New Orleans seems like it is still struggling to overcome the effects of Katrina, which is probably why there are suddenly so many parking restrictions, and the parking authorities so vigilant. So out of character for this ‘anything goes’ town. In Mississippi, you pass the beautiful home of the president of the confederacy Jefferson Davis, and one can only wonder what it must have been like to leave this gorgeous home on the beach, move to a place like Richmond, to ‘run the confederacy’; a really bad decision in the long run. Did he ever make it back? Then the gulf coast, with its brand new ‘towns on stilts’…literally the houses, the stores, the cafes are all built on pylons, to withstand floods and perhaps the intense winds of hurricanes, which come every year. The Bolivar Peninsula, and Galveston where I finally found the deserted coast line I have been looking for. Finally central Texas including Houston and finally Dallas. Both of these cities are juggernauts on their own. When you combine Houston and Dallas with San Antonio, Austin and the western Texas cities, you begin to understand why this state is so important, and why it is unlike any other. Sponsored by Hydrus and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul

Podcast 440

New Radio Show. In a freewheeling discussion on Saturday night about talk radio, media and creativity, the new Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show on the Genesis Communications Network is announced. The Bob Davis Podcasts are content rich, so taking some of that content and reproducing it into a one hour weekly show available on the Westwood Satellite for radio stations, is a new idea. From here we talk about the current state of talk radio and media, as well as what’s planned for next year at The Bob Davis Podcasts. Some of the people who listen to these podcasts are interested in ‘behind the scenes’ stuff in radio. While there isn’t going to be any dirt thrown in this podcast, there is discussion about the fact that broadcast media, as well as some of the older style cable news channels really aren’t serving viewers and listeners anymore. It seems more and more as though the job of talkers is to get people angry and upset, or to gin up longer listening spans by talking about nothing, using emotional content in the worst sort of way. One of the things podcasters learn right away is, there is a lot more content in a half-hour podcast than you’ll ever hear in an hour on the radio or on cable TV News, and certainly in an hour of television news. What’s also surprising is the realization that being in business for yourself, and building the business, is sometimes more fun and engaging that actually doing the podcasts. Podcasting itself – while not brand new – is brand new to most people, especially for those long time talk radio listeners who find themselves with nothing to listen to. A new medium means new opportunities for business, which can be very exciting. The New Bob Davis Podcast Radio Show will feature content from the podcasts, which should become very dense after February 1st, as we begin official coverage of election 2016, by covering the Iowa Caucuses and then a grand trip through Mid South Super Tuesday States, to South Carolina (third in the nation primary state), Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Texas and north back to the Twin Cities. Of course, the podcasts will continue right here at thebobdavispodcasts.com. Watch this space for links and specifics regarding the new Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show. Sponsored by Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate, Hydrus, and Baklund R&D