Day of the Tentacles

On the mend from a hectic book tour, the ever-reliable Chris Stirewalt returns to the ...

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On the mend from a hectic book tour, the ever-reliable Chris Stirewalt returns to the Remnant for some old fashioned rank punditry on partisanship, the midterms, and America’s changing demographics. After discussing the Herschel Walker situation, MAGA’s hatred of Mitch McConnell, and the allure of strange aspects of Japanese culture, Chris and Jonah answer some of the most pressing questions of the moment. Will the Dobbs decision have much influence on the midterms? Is there anything good about primaries? And why can’t politicians talk about how great it is to be alive right now?

Show Notes:

– Chris’ page at The Dispatch

– Chris’ new book, Broken News

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Comments (41)
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  1. Sean Massey

    I love anytime Chris joins you on the show. It is always gives me something new to think about.

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    Jason Godwin

    I honestly thought this was one of the better episodes of the podcast. It's always great when Stirewalt is on, but this one was above and beyond. And if you read this comment, Mr. Stirewalt, all I'll say is that your comments about not being so obsessive about politics were a little convicting, and I'm glad you made those comments (I needed to hear that). I generally see myself as a "rank punditry" this-is-sorta-a-hobby guy when it comes to politics that usually doesn't take it too seriously, but I can take it too far at times. You're totally right about keeping it in its proper place and not letting it come between yourself and family members, etc. We get elections every two years. If we make a boo-boo, we will have a quick turnaround to rectify it.

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    TheKingPrawn

    You missed a perfect opportunity to reference "pure concentrated evil" from the movie Time Bandits.

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  4. AHenry

    Jonah and Chris (and MANY others on numerous podcasts not limited to The Dispatch Pirate Ship) point to the low quality of Republican candidates. John Pod STILL is bashing Christine I'm-not-a-witch O'Donell over on the "Commentary" podcast.

    But the truth is, it really doesn't matter if Republicans are decent human beings or Donald Trump - they will be portrayed as crazy, evil, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-women, anti-etc. Think about how Mitt Romney was characterized by the NY Times, The WaPo, ABC, NBC, and CBS. By all accounts Mr. Romney is a pretty decent guy. But he was cast as a homophobic, bullying, murdering, dog-abuser.

    John Fetterman is "authentic".

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  5. Tom Coffman

    The Mitch Daniels love with the Dispatch crew...goodness, talk about idol.

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  6. The Nobody

    Considering what was discussed in the first 10 min of this podcast, I'm only slightly disturbed by the wording of the title....

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    Ben Connelly

    Al Pacino’s speech at the end of Scent of a Woman is a classic. People misunderstand that movie though. They think Charlie is honorable because he’s not a snitch. Thus we get the perverse reverse honor code in which students refuse to turn in other students for cheating. Charlie is honorable because he refused to give in to extortion. Once the offer/demand was made by those in a position of power over him, the honorable thing became to remain silent. Charlie did the right thing not because tolerating misconduct is right but because honor requires not giving in to blackmail.

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    Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

    Good show, thank you both, gentlemen. The discussion of DeSantis was particularly informative.

    May your Yom Kippur be a meaningful one for you and yours, Mr. Goldberg.

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    BWG

    For a split second I thought that was "Day of the Testicles." I got so excited thinking you were going to talk about Rocky Mountain oysters or something. I was disappointed that there was only one reference to "balls."

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      BWG

      But let me be clear, I really enjoyed this Remnant, as usual. It's especially educational, and always entertaining (explosive?) when JG and CS are in close proximity - kinda like when you get two chunks of fissile material close together and they go critical.

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    CynthiaW

    Mr. Stirewalt and Jonah's discussion of Ron DeSantis near the end was really interesting. It raised my opinion of Gov. DeSantis. I view myself as a similar kind of "dead-eyed" calculating machine. Tell me what I need to do to earn a (metaphorical) cookie. Let me do it. Give me the cookie. Repeat ad infinitum. I suppose it doesn't sound as good as claiming to be Empathetic, but people are like what they're like.

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      Jason Godwin

      I agree 100%. I'm someone that's been sorta skeptical of DeSantis, but I think I agree with Jonah that when DeSantis needs to turn it off and just be a competent leader, he can do so. That was Trump's biggest (political) failure: he could amp up a crowd and throw the red meat out there, but he never could turn it off and be serious. Everything was a political speech to him. COVID gave him a great opportunity to step up to the plate and he didn't take it. Meanwhile, Florida actually handled COVID fairly well compared to a lot of U.S. states (all the more remarkable when you consider Florida has one of the oldest populations in the country). DeSantis seems rather good at crisis management as well. As someone noted in an episode of The Dispatch Podcast, if you're Governor of Florida, you will almost certainly have to coordinate a hurricane response at some point in your term (definitely if you serve two terms...I'm a meteorologist and can tell you there are not many 8-year streaks in the climate record without Florida at least being grazed by a hurricane). It's incumbent upon elected officials to learn their roles and responsibilities during a disaster (for example: only the chief executive of a state can declare an emergency or request FEMA assistance...the state emergency management coordinator has zero political authority).

      I don't think I'd go so far as to say DeSantis is my top choice for the Republican nominee (probably not even top three), but I think I could tolerate voting for him in a general election...at least based on what I know right now. He at least strikes me as a guy who is within the interquartile range of a normal Republican, for whatever that is worth these days.

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      1. Ammoongrs

        There is the problem that we didn’t get a lot of Covid data out of florida

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      Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

      I agree it was interesting! It raised my opinion of him too, although that may have been in the same way that learning that a snake is venomous will cause me to regard it with more care in the future. I am intrigued that Messrs. G&S seemed in agreement that DeSantis can doff and don his "boob bait for the bubbas" persona more or less whenever he deems it to suit his immediate political needs. But I am idealistic enough to hope for a GOP nominee who is Trump's opposite on the key character issues, honesty and authenticity. That certainly doesn't sound like DeSantis.

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        CynthiaW

        "I am idealistic enough to hope for a GOP nominee who is Trump's opposite on the key character issues, honesty and authenticity."

        I'm not.

        I dedicate my charitable energy to being idealistic about people in my real life.

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          Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

          Undoubtedly the wiser course.

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            CynthiaW

            A better chance of success, I think.

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