Crude Transcript of “Nail-Biter or Landslide: Here’s What It Might Depend On”

everybody says that this election’s going to be close and um to some extent people are saying that because we don’t want to take anything for granted and we need to go all out and and just do everything as if as if we were uh uh the underdog and all that maybe or maybe people actually believe it uh I continually Envision uh other better possibilities than that and uh I I I see that there are forces at work here which could you lead to a collapse of the Trump World uh for various ways which uh we already see some of them and uh you know what if he starts being seen more widely as demented um what if he keeps on making a fool of himself uh I I see first of all we have seen some extraordinary things happen uh uh these days what has happened in the Democratic world uh I’ve never seen the likes of it I know a fair amount of political history of certainly the United States a lot but the other democracies I think this was a unique event and thrilling extraordinary U and the question is

how well do we know what all is going on in in in in in a system like ours uh everybody seems to think that there there are a lot of things that are just uh dug into place and maybe that’s true you know that Trump’s going to get us 46% I mean is is it really true that 46% of the American people would uh are ready to support Trump no matter what’s going on uh and there’s stuff going on there’s what we saw at the Democratic National Convention I’ve been following American political convention since 1956 uh when Jack Kennedy didn’t get the VP [ __ ] and Estus ke harer did and they both lost anyway so I’ve seen a lot of conventions I’ve never seen anything like this this was U this was to political conventions what the Olympics that we just had in Paris were to Olympics I mean something

special so this is a something extraordinary has happened uh on the Democratic world that happened immediately is uh when Biden stepped aside and and and designated uh kamla Harris to be his chosen successor the replacement at the top of the ticket ever since that moment there’s just been some something going on which is you know really intense uh and the question uh is that I think nailbiter or Landslide uh

is can the rest of the electorate or some big part of the rest of the electorate get swept up in this thing it’s a very powerful thing and I can imagine that a lot of rural people listening to particularly what Waltz was saying would would say you know I can be at home in this party and then you have people like Adam kinzinger gave a fantastic speech about how his conservative principles required him to to make alliance with Kamala Harris and support her because the alternative uh violates all of the the things that as a conservative a Reagan Republican he held sacred so they’re trying to create a permission structure in the Republican world and meanwhile the Democrats are putting out a they’re claiming the flag they’re claiming Freedom they’re claiming Family Values they’re claiming all the stuff that the uh that used to be one of the things that tied a lot of middle Americans let’s just say uh to the Republican Party how successful is that going to be I can Envision that um people are right and saying you know we’re we’re we are we have this badly polarized Society well we do but there are a lot of good people out there that if somehow they were to see the whole political battle in different terms uh they would Express the values that I used to I mean I know conservatives from a decade’s worth of talk radio conversations about important things and there I I I know some of their real values and they’ve betrayed them and um is it possible that the Democratic attempt to pitch themselves as the uh the the holders of the legacy of of us as Americans and leader of the Free World and all that stuff is that going to register with enough people who maybe haven’t been very happy to have Trump all over again and Trump is doing rather poorly he he’s not looking that good uh don’t know if there’s going to be a debate and what’s going to happen in that but other than that he looks like he’s on the ropes whether anybody in Trump world is going to notice that and respond to that I I don’t know they have stuck with him through incredible number of things including so inciting and Insurrection so you know how am I to know what what what can lead people to be to detach from him but I do see that kamla Harris and and um and Tim Waltz are doing a great job with the help of like the Obamas and uh and others who have been mocking Trump cutting him down to size and and I’ve written a piece about how their mockery they’re treating him not as a big oh we got to be afraid of this big and powerful guy who’s threatening everything to the old deer which is true about what he is but instead to uh to belittle him so as Trump’s image goes down how many people are going to let go anyway this is this is what I think uh is is the point of uncertainty here in the American Body politic right now in the wake of this tsunami that arose in the Democratic world that we could see in these rallies at every every stop where every every arena is filled to the rafters and people are turned away and and it’s a convention that is so filled with joy and a sense of uh of gladness to be in this

fight well can that carry the rest of America with them can that carry everybody but the 32% that polls indicate really like the idea of a strongman government I mean she’s campaigning as the protector of our constitutional order and the rule of law but then not everybody wants that and but it couldn’t be more than according to the poll I saw 32% you know if you can hold him to that that is a blowout that even goes beyond 72 and n 1936 and 1964 that’s way out there so there’s a lot of room to win people over and I just don’t know uh basically whether we’re gonna have a um success in reaching out to Independents and people and Haley Nicki Haley voters I was a bit discouraged in this Respect by a piece that I read uh um on the bull workk actually asking why couldn’t the why weren’t there more people there uh of a higher status of Republicans like who had worked with Trump like Jean Kelly Jean Kelly well General uh Kelly not the dancer um and well well they didn’t mention uh Bill bar but Bill bar was should if he were speak honestly we’ve seen video of him he knows things to say why wasn’t he at the convention why weren’t the cabinet people who serve with Trump who says this guy is an idiot an effing [ __ ] so anyway he asked the question well why weren’t there people uh of higher rank than a lieutenant former Lieutenant Governor from Georgia and the mayor of Mesa Arizona and Adam kininger I thought kininger was great but yeah why wasn’t there why weren’t the W there and maybe even Dick Cheney and at least Liz Cheney well he went through a variety of possible reasons and

um he didn’t come up with any reason that was good uh like there he left me worrying that perhaps the showing of the Republicans who can testify uh maybe they won’t work like they could uh to give the permission structure as they call it to the Republicans to abandon Trump and to support Democrats as kenzinger said uh to support Kamala not as a Democrat but as a patriot um I don’t know there’s a limited amount of time I’m hoping that there’ll be more manifested uh in advertisements as we get close closer to the election maybe there was some good reason that this guy on bullwark didn’t recognize that better to uh hold off and then do some stuff uh within more Striking Distance of the election I don’t know but I hope I hope that the Republican world that uh will come through I mean it was so disappointing when uh oh I guess we already know that uh Bill bar has endorsed Trump after all he said about him and Nikki Haley has endorsed Trump after all she said about him what a craving Bunch but so maybe we won’t be able to reach out as effectively as might one might have hoped to the Republican world through Republican voices because it seems that there’s moral cowardice on the Republican side how else do you explain something like Nikki Haley I think it was a stupid Choice she made too I don’t think she’s I don’t think she’s protected any political future for herself she would have been much smarter to to make herself the person who didn’t capitulate because there with any luck there will become a time in four years or eight years where the party has completely repudiated its Trump form something’s going to have to happen particularly if we get the blowout we need

now to reach people the people who don’t want a fascistic regime need to be brought over to make sure that we preserve what we’ve got as a the Our Heritage As Americans is uh a a land ruled by law and not by the Lawless okay them’s my thoughts please uh take a look at um how I lay out a fairly integrated picture of the whole battle between democracy and fascism and the whole battle to of humankind to make its civilization more viable less traumatizing okay that’s it