Podcast 541

Podcast 541. Electoral College Yoga. Get ready to twist your brain into pretzel like shapes as I talk about the electoral college, polls, and what the benchmarks for Election 2016 are so far. I’ll do another benchmark in about a month and one just before the election in late October, or early November. There are a lot of caveats on polling data. While most media people and their viewers seem to want to talk about national presidential preference polls, the proof of the pudding is in the state by state polls. The United States does not elect its presidents with a national vote. In fact, a presidential election is fifty state elections. Voters are selecting a slate of electors, chosen and voting generally according to state law and state party rules. So when you hear one candidate is ‘ahead’ over another in a national poll it really doesn’t mean anything. In 2008 and again in 2012 Republicans in particular were so hopeful based on national preference polls that if you said McCain or Mitt Romney wasn’t going to win, you were ‘raining on the parade’. But, if you looked closely at state polls in those election cycles, the outcome was not a surprise. State polls have their own problems; Smaller sample size, different polling methodologies, and in some states they are no polls until just before the election. While its not advisable to compare different polls of different sources and methodologies, we do it all the time. We’re looking for trends primarily. Currently while Donald J. Trump leads Hillary Clinton in a national presidential preference poll, the state polls tell a completely different story. It’s not a good story for republicans. The case isn’t closed. Trump still has time, but time is fleeting. I don’t support any candidate. I’m not working for any candidate. I’m not going to tell you how to vote. I’m also not going to spin the polling data to make you think something can happen, or is going to happen. If you want the straight talk on what’s going on, the Bob Davis Podcasts is the place to check back for these benchmark state-by-state analyses as we progress to Election Day 2016. Sponsored by Karow Contracting and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul.

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Podcast 528-Bob Davis Podcast Radio Show #36

Podcast 528-Bob Davis Podcast Radio Show #36. Taking listeners from northern Minnesota, through Wisconsin, to Michigan’s UP, down the Lake Huron coast of the Great Lakes State, onto Cleveland, Ohio for RNC 2016. The Great Lakes Region is still the Industrial Heartland of the United States, perhaps the world. At one time though, this part of the country was like a magnet for workers from all over the world, and the US, looking for a better life. The so called ‘Rust Belt’ is soon to be a focal point for campaigns competing to win the presidency in 2016. Donald J. Trump – the Republican nominee – has pledged to bring the jobs back to this region, and Hillary Clinton will spend a lot of time campaigning in democratic strongholds in the industrial urban giants in Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin. In Podcast 528-Bob Davis Podcast Radio Show #36 we’ll take listeners on a brief part of the trip through the Upper Peninsula on the road to Cleveland. No doubt, RNC 2016 was a bruising affair for the so called principled conservative, as the GOP establishment rolled over, climbed onto the bed and willingly gave itself to Trump’s campaign. So intense is the GOP’s desire to ‘win’ — and at any cost — it’s capitulation might not be a surprise to some. What’s surprising is the twenty-four-hour vilification of Senator Ted Cruz — himself not without sin — for staying true to his base and refusing to ‘endorse’ Trump. These are the two biggest stories to come out of the convention and they all add up to the same story; The Trump Bandwagon has become a train and ‘loyal’ republicans are supposed to get on board. Or else. Principle? We don’t need no stinking principle!  We’ll get an inside view after the convention’s tumultuous first day, with The Blaze’s Mike Opelka. Then, reaction from Minnesota Cruz Organizer Mandy Benz, who talked to The Bob Davis Podcasts just after the Ted Cruz speech, Wednesday night. These events will have grave consequences for republicans. Some who threw their support to Trump will have to defend a potential Trump presidency’s decisions for four years. They will have to do this without really knowing what Trump is actually for. Wonder how that plays for Newt Gingrich and Scott Walker, as well as others who’ve climbed aboard a runaway train, without knowing where it’s going. If Trump loses, these same experts and pundits will have a lot of explaining to do. For the grassroots, the scales have fallen from their eyes as they get a strong dose of political hardball in the big leagues. Think you’re a conservative? Standing up to these kinds of people will test your mettle. Many ‘conservatives’ failed the test. Just imagine what it’s like in Washington DC. Sponsored by Karow Contracting.

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Podcast 527

RNC Dies At Cleveland? Day One of the Republican National Convention. While the mainstream media covers the convention from inside, The Bob Davis Podcasts is on the streets outside Quicken Arena. Some insiders would agree with the headline; RNC Dies At Cleveland. Some are actually saying that a rules fight that resulted in a few walkouts signals the end of the grassroots movement in republican politics, and certainly the end of something once known as a ‘principled’ conservative. While pundits point to a platform they say is the most conservative in history they ignore rule changes that give the RNC complete control over future conventions. The takeaway? No more Ron Paul insurgencies and no more Ted Cruz and evangelist grassroots movements. While the chance always existed for the Republican Establishment to join forces with the grassroots movements to ‘Dump Trump’, instead the establishment joined forces with the Trump campaign. In the end, the grassroots are out. Permanently. As some republicans – including various state party officials – cracked under the pressure of hard ball politics, it’s the same old story with republicans. Why rock the boat? Why make a spectacle of yourself and your state for the media? While there’s talk of a walkout, with each passing moment, the majority of the GOP, passive to the core, will go along to get along. Some see this outcome as necessary to unify the party for victory. Others see it as the death of the grassroots movement in republican politics, and the republican party. Outside the exclusion zone around the convention venue, delegates and politicos taking a break mixed with Cleveland’s downtown workers, and street people milling around bars and restaurants. It was a street fair featuring network TV studios and bloviating rather than kielbasa. Hit the streets with the Bob Davis Podcasts, starting with a woman who lives on the streets giving her analysis of the political situation, moving onto a protest, plus Blaze Correspondent Mike Opelka and more. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating and Hydrus Performance.

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