Cledus the Country Pundit

The tragedy of Joe Biden's presidency.

By and
39

Chris Stirewalt can be many things—caveman lawyer, Southern fried good old boy, etc.—but today, he’s a simple pundit from the backwoods who’s back on the Remnant to dispense some rank insights on the state of our parties and how the 2024 election is shaping up. The resulting conversation is exactly what you’d imagine: an onslaught of pop culture references tempered by a modicum of sobering political analysis. How clear is it that Biden can defeat Trump? What do the current Democratic and Republican coalitions look like? And should the Department of Energy move to West Virginia (Chris’ answer won’t surprise you)?

Show Notes:

– Chris’ page at The Dispatch

– Chris: “Five Known Unknowns for 2024”

– The Remnant with Tom Nichols

– Steven Teles and Robert Saldin: “The Future Is Faction”

– Chris’ book on populism, Every Man a King

– Michael Lind: “America’s Woke Elite Monoculture”

– The Remnant with Robert P. George

– Jonah: “Democrats Are Making a Risky Bet With Biden”

– Mike Duncan’s The Storm Before the Storm

– Kevin Williamson: “The Whited Sepulcher”

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Comments (39)
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  1. Avatar photo
    Sad Trombone

    I'm pretty sure your podcast skews as far old fogie as network TV and TV news. It would be very beneficial for us old folks if you put a "back 10 seconds" button so we can catch words that were garbled or talked over and that our brains are too mushy to comprehend like you whippersnappers.

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    SeanM76

    Always great to hear from Chris. I wish he would have listened to the Nichols podcast before he did this session with you. I would have liked to hear his thoughts on it.

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    Ben Connelly

    I will never get tired of Stirewalt doing a different voice for “No You won’t this is a podcast.”

    What I appreciate most about Chris Stirewalt is his honest humility. He’s a genuine guy, and he really knows his stuff but doesn’t flaunt it. He is one of the few pundits willing to be humble and that’s why I think he’s one of the best. Too many pundits, including at the Dispatch (cough, AllahPundit, cough, Sarah) express absolutely certainty about events they cannot be certain about. Brother Stirewalt had me metaphorically cheering when he said he tends to avoid “straight line projections into the future” (Jonah has said similar words in the past, too). I really appreciate that. It certainly fits with the book I’m reading right now (other than Suicide of the West, which I’ve almost finished): Fooled By Randomness. This might be my favorite of Taleb’s books and it’s only made me more convinced that the one thing we can be certain about is that we can’t be certain about the future.

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    LonesomeRhodes

    As always, you two are my personal political patron saints- If there were prayer candles with each of your images on them, I’d be a buyer.

    That said, I take small exception with Stirewalt’s characterization of Ted Budd (at 36:00 in) as one of the normals of the GOP. He referred to Jan 6 rioters as “just patriots standing up”. Did he maybe need to toe that line? Sure- That comment doesn’t instantly make him one of the wackadoodles.

    That said, I’m just worried about us being tied to our own priors with this narrative about Biden-Youngkin voters. I’ve believed that The Remnant is the hinge that will define national elections for a while… that said it’s an awfully convenient narrative that makes us feel good. We need to be sure we’re giving it all due critical consideration. Maybe I’m just too nervous to just accept this as a given.

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    Darren.Austin

    I love it when you two get together. I laughed out loud when you closed with “alright, friends…keep hope alive. ”
    I could hear the shrug through the microphone. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
    Better to be able to laugh at the insanity of the day than have to cry about it.

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  6. Demartino1000

    Have a Double feature with the Warriors CAN YOU DIG IT!

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  7. Phillyex1

    If you got a lot of comment from Pence people about Kevin Williamson’s article, I’d love to see what you get about Nick Catoggio’s latest.

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  8. BSamuel

    Come on Jonah. You can’t just tease that you heard feedback from Pence’s people on KWs column and not elaborate!

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  9. Robert Lukaszczyk

    Always enjoy my dose of West Virginia. That said, I’m going to need an explainer of the bucket analogy because I was lost.

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    1. Phillyex1

      What they are saying is if you layer all the states with the most Democratic (DC) on the bottom and the least (OK?) on top, if Biden won number 42 from the bottom (KY), then he almost certainly won all the ones below it.

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    Bel

    I'm not sure hosting Fox & Friends from Nashville would be much different from hosting it from NYC. Yes the county music & BBQ would fit in more seamlessly but although TN is very red Nashville is quite blue.

    Which is a reminder that most of the cultural signalling that comes from right and left has it limits. There are cowboy hat wearing Democrats and Birkenstock wearing Republicans and on any given weekend they both may be in Nashville, probably at Bachelorette party

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      LonesomeRhodes

      Solid mic drop with the bachelorette reference…

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