Podcast 264

Jeb Bush? Really? What started as a midweek update, back in the studio after the road trip, turned into a discussion of whether the ‘conservative movement’ has completely lost its way, even whether it exists at all. As Congress seems to struggle with how to handle President Obama’s executive orders on immigration, in an effort to avoid a government shutdown which moderates feel is bad publicity for Republicans, the Speaker’s plan is apparently to pass a continuing resolution for the overall budget while offering a separate budget for Homeland Security (Which is where the funding for the President’s controversial executive order on Immigration is funded). This leaves room for the complete Republican 117th Congress to address these issues after January. This strategy isn’t sitting well with some Republicans who believe they were sent there to stop the President’s power grab. While political junkies should probably stop worrying about Congress and start concentrating on building organizations for 2016, there is a big fight brewing on both sides of the political spectrum. Progressive and Moderate Democrats on one side, and a mixed bag of Republican constituencies on the other. Libertarians, Moderates, Religious Conservatives all vying for control of the GOP … again. This leaves space for yet another Bush to ride in on the White Horse they keep down there on the ranch and be ‘the adult in the room’ and stop all those crazy ‘Paul-Bots’, and ‘Tea Baggers’; i.e.; The Conservative Movement. Or what’s left of it. The challenge in this podcast is, once again, to define what exactly a conservative is? While the Republicans won a huge midyear victory, that victory does not mean the ‘movement’ is healthy … or even alive. A conservative is a former Florida Governor who believes in Common Core and doesn’t want to repeal Obama Care? Republicans might have won a legislative majority in 2014, but that doesn’t mean they know what they’re doing. All it shows — and they certainly deserve credit for it — is that they were able to get their people out to vote, while the other side stayed home. But what is the GOP for? What do the conservatives want to do about economic policy, spending and debt, foreign policy? The so called grassroots are talking about 1776, the constitution and a constitutional convention (Editor’s Note: The dumbest idea ever.) This is a conservative ‘movement’? Next? Someone finally has taken the pundits who keep saying cheaper gas is like a huge tax cut. Except it’s not. In this podcast find out why. Plus, don’t forget there is an ominous demand side to the cheaper gas we’re currently enjoying; Slow downs in Europe, Japan, China and Latin America do not bode well for the global economy, and the US isn’t growing dynamically to pull everyone else’s fat out of the fire this time. Black Friday turned out to be a bust. So don’t expect that just because gas is 2.49 a gallon it means unicorns and rainbows, economically speaking that is. Sponsored by X Government Cars and by Depotstar

Podcast 209

Obama Makes A Move. ‘On The Road’ Podcasting continues on the second leg of the Chicago to Phoenix trip. Iowa, Nebraska and half of Colorado in one day? The travel reverie is interrupted with a speech from the President, and instant analysis. Apparently the US now has a strategy  to “degrade and destroy” the ‘Islamic State’. The strategy – we are told most emphatically – does not include ‘troops on the ground fighting on foreign soil’, but features aid, training and a coalition of Arab states in the region. What is your reaction to the President’s speech? To what degree are the current problems in Iraq the result of his policies. Did he play fast and loose with the ‘facts’ in the speech? Did it feel like a campaign speech? Or, might all of this be a reaction to being stung by the media for actually saying he did not have a strategy just two short weeks ago? Will the speech help the President’s sinking popularity ratings, and democrat prospects for 2014? Most importantly, will the Administration’s plan actually work? The President’s speech sounded erie on scratchy AM radio, from a distant town, while traveling all alone on a deserted rural freeway, passing through Western Nebraska and Eastern Colorado. While it is right and proper for a politician to ballyhoo his successes and downplay his failures, one wonders whether the attempt to ‘degrade and destroy’ ISIS – if it fails – could be the beginning of a substantially more dangerous crisis. Have we seen this pattern before? It sure feels like it. Talking about the same things day after day, outrage over celebrity news, or how sportsmen conduct their personal affairs, while international affairs contain the specter of spinning out of control. Only time will tell. Plus, observations on small towns in Nebraska, Sod Houses, giant tunnels, mountains, and plans for the rest of the trip, where you would live if you could live anywhere…Vail, Colorado would do, in a pinch! Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul