The Ricochet Podcast - Breakfast In America
Episode Date: February 12, 2016Let’s get right to the point: we’ve got Larry Kudlow (shameless plug: listen to Kudlow and Pawlenty’s Money & Politics podcast) who may or may not be the next Senator from Connecticut to sch...ool on why Donald Trump ought to be taken seriously and other matters both political and economic, followed by the great Michael Barone, who joins us from the side of the road in South Carolina. Source
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Hello, everyone.
This notion that Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing is just not true.
There it is.
He knows exactly what he's doing.
The memorized 25-second speech.
I'm not going to get...
I don't know what's going to happen here.
I don't have any information on that.
They don't understand what you're talking about.
And that's going to prove to be disastrous.
What it means is that the going to prove to be disastrous. What it means
is that the people
don't want socialism.
They want more conservatism.
Mr. Gorbachev,
tear down this wall.
It's the Ricochet Podcast
with Peter Robinson
and Rob Long.
I'm James Laddix
and our guests today,
well, it's not exactly
the amateur hour.
Larry Kudlow and Michael Perrone.
Let's have a podcast.
Hello, everybody.
This is the Ricochet Podcast.
It opened at number 400, but at the bell, it closed at 291.
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We're now joined, of course, by the founders of Ricochet.
Those would be the eminence grease.
That's G.R.I.S., by the way, not in the sense of the musical or the cooking fat.
Rob Long and Peter Robinson. Hey guys.
Good morning.
And,
uh,
Rob,
I believe had the best line of the New Hampshire podcast ever.
Um,
in the history of New Hampshire podcast,
I think he got off the best line,
which nobody heard or seemed to recognize.
Uh,
Rob,
do you know what that is?
He's not on yet.
That's right. I was going to say something
about that. I was going
to say that he was being modest. So never
mind.
So let's just stop and
dump that whole bit, pretending that
I wasn't going somewhere with it, and roll
it right back to where I introduced Peter and Rob.
Three, two,
one. And of course, we're brought to you
by the founders of Ricochet, Peter Robinson and
Rob Long. Peter, you know,
we have right now a
stark choice between
a nationalist populist and a nationalist
socialist. I'm sorry, I godmanized
the guy already. Looking at
the last election, we know Bernie's not going
to win simply because the super
delicate situation is stacked against him. He's right about the game being rigged. So is this then just an efflorescence
of wonderful, romantic leftist fury from these people before they settled out of the pragmatic
business of being ruled by Mother Clinton? At 30%, I would have thought it was an efflorescence of leftist
sentiment. At 60%, which is what he got in New Hampshire, I've concluded that instead it is a
wholesale rejection of Hillary Clinton. Some smallish component of people are actually voting
for Bernie Sanders, and the kids seem to be a major part of that component.
On the other hand, a large component of his support is now simply rejecting Hillary Clinton.
She's she's a liar.
She's she's a terrible campaigner.
She's the old generation.
She's all that's bad and stuck in the past about the
Democratic Party. And that's not just me talking. That's a lot of Democrats. So I now think that
Bernie Sanders is an even more serious threat to Clinton than he was before. I agree. Yes,
the way they've structured the thing, all the superdelegates are likely to go for Hillary.
It'll be virtually impossible for Bernie Sanders to win the nomination. On the other hand, he could blow up the whole process before they even get to the convention and create an opening
for the likes of Joe Biden, because what he represents is a rejection by Democrats themselves
of Hillary Clinton. I don't know why you think she's a horrible candidate when she talks like
this and pours into you like a diamond tip drill.
Did I want, I'm sorry?
Did you see any of the debate last night between Bernie and Hillary?
No, I can't bear to hear either her monotonous grating voice or Bernie's booming confiscatory rhetoric.
Both of them are too evidently depressing.
But when you say the rejection of Clinton though, is this a rejection of her personally or what she – of course it is – or what she stands for?
Yes.
If anybody figures that she stands for anything though.
I mean they're rejecting somebody whose ideals they would gladly embrace in somebody who was more effective at lying to them about their own self-interest.
You know, I'm not even sure of that.
I'm not even sure.
First of all, I don't I'm not sure that it reaches the level of real policy analysis. First of all, who knows what she stands for?
And the reason I asked if you saw the debate last night was a because the way you just imitated her reminded me of the debate.
She was out trying to out scream him.
She was she went into that debate.
Clearly, the notion of that debate was I've got to move to the left.
I've got to show everybody that I'm just as committed as Bernie Sanders.
So her rhetoric was hotter than it's been.
She her positions were further to the left than they've been.
And she was shouting.
It was as if she somebody had said to her passion, you've got to demonstrate passion. And in her mind, that meant shout. I would have hated to have been in the
sound booth at that debate last night, trying to adjust the dials as she screamed into the
microphone. So what does she stand for? To the extent that she stands for anything, it's really
hard to say because she's been around so long that she's like the Grand Canyon. There are layers of policy, layers of Democratic Party history that she represents.
One is Bill Clinton, her own husband, his administration, which people remember is successful.
Why?
In my judgment, because he didn't do anything to get in the way of the economic expansion
that Reagan and George H.W. Bush had begun.
He let the economic effects of their policies
continue to work themselves out,
and that meant economic growth.
Still, from the policy point of view,
he was a centrist Democrat.
So she appeals to all those Wall Street banks
that have been paying her $200,000 a speech.
For her insight.
For her insight.
She appeals to them.
Yeah, of course, it's nonsense.
They're putting markers down.
They're making investments in the next president. That's surely the way they saw it. stuff of some undetermined kind by voting for a Democrat and yet at the same time feel confident
that she won't get in the way of his making money on the southern end of Manhattan Island.
So she represents Bill Clinton. The party as a whole has moved beyond that. It's become more
leftist, more progressive. She represents Barack Obama, but she positions herself in her memoirs
in particular as the sensible member of the Obama administration, the one who's tough on foreign policy.
The country doesn't want or certainly the Democratic Party doesn't want anyone who's tough on foreign policy now.
And now who knows what this latest incarnation of the last three or four or five weeks where she's trying to become – there is no way that Hillary Clinton, a product of a fancy upbringing,
Wellesley, there is no way that Hillary Clinton is going to be able to get to the left of
a red baby who was born in Brooklyn and remained true to the ideals of soft communism or hard
socialism or however you want to describe it throughout his entire – she cannot get
to the left of Bernie Sanders.
But she's going to try.
So who knows what she stands for?
But it's – she's shrill.
It's dishonest.
It's wooden.
She's a bad – I just – it's a kind of – what is it called when a transplant doesn't take and there's a kind of –
Rejection.
Yes.
Organ rejection.
It's like that. I don't even – at this point, it's not even – it's just like an organism rejecting
this thing, this object.
That's the way it seems to me.
It's now – it's not Bernie versus Hillary.
It's just not Hillary, not her.
Let us move past her.
Well, it will be amusing then if at the convention, she gets up to get her acceptance speech and then staggers backward.
And like the scene in the first Alien movie, Joe Biden comes cracking out her sternum, grins at everybody, then scuttles away to go campaign for the general.
Yeah.
Well, you're quite right.
We haven't talked about Donald yet.
We will in just a second here.
But what I find fascinating is that Sanders this week met with Al Sharpton to shore up his bona fides.
Yes.
And here you – I mean here you have again the legitimization of an absolute cur of a man, an absolute horrible, horrible fellow whose ring now it is obligatory to kiss on the left.
Yes.
Which I just absolutely find fascinating.
But better than that was the picture of the two of them seated together.
Because in order to keep away those who might rush up with their pens eager for an autograph,
there was a little velvet rope.
Oh, I didn't see that. I didn't see a shot that included the rope. Got it. Suddenly the man of privilege himself, the man of the people, would like a little distance between himself and the hoi polloi.
It made for a wonderful picture.
If I had been actually in the editing booth of the newspaper, I would have desaturated everything and brought up the red in the rope.
But that's a kind of showy trick.
And really, you want to learn fine photography? Well, the great courses have got some lessons for you.
Hey, I just got on to Skype.
I don't know where you guys are. I'm sorry. I was just running a little late.
Sadly, you talk about Sharpton and then
maybe James is going into a...
Oh, no.
Now I feel terrible. Another one.
Now I feel terrible.
I feel bad.
I'm sorry.
Pretend I'm not here.
Go ahead.
I'll be great.
Quiet as a mouse.
We welcome Rob Long to the podcast.
And we also welcome The Great Courses Plus.
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Rob, before you showed up and just before we get to Larry here, we were discussing the repudiation of Hillary Clinton en masse.
Does this fill you with glee and joy?
Yeah.
You'd have to have a heart of stone, James, not to find this just delightful. She lost every single,
every single demographic group in New Hampshire,
except I think the elderly,
the shut-ins, elderly shut-ins.
You know, but like, don't count her out.
She's really good.
She's very smart.
They're already gearing up.
Look, she's got South Carolina wired
after her ignominious defeat in 2008.
They're not, the Clintons, they play hard.
And so –
But that surely – sorry.
No, no.
To me, what was interesting yesterday about the picture of Bernie Sanders and Al Sharpton,
that – Bernie Sanders is serious about running for president at this stage.
Surely the meaning of his meeting with Al Sharpton is to begin going after the African-American vote down in South Carolina. From the get-go,
the Clinton campaign has been saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, we may have some trouble in Iowa
and New Hampshire, but that's because it's all white people. You just wait till we move down
to the South where we have our ethnic supporters, ethnic Democrats, and they're all for Hillary.
Bernie Sanders goes to Manhattan, has a cup of coffee with Al Sharpton.
He is serious about taking her on in a way that I don't think he was just a couple of weeks ago.
That is true.
I'm sorry.
No, I was just going to say we have a guest to get to and perhaps we should bring in his expertise to this.
That would be Larry Kudlow, of course, the world-famous CNBC host and the co-host of Kudlow and Pawlenty's Money in Politics podcast, which is found where?
Right here on Ricochet, of course.
And he may also be the next senator from Connecticut, but we'll have to ask him about that.
Welcome back to the Ricochet podcast.
I'm on.
Hey, Larry.
It's Rob Long in New York.
Welcome.
Hello, Rob.
So can we just finish up? The last time you were on about a month ago, we were having a nice chat, and you gave me some great schooling on economics, which you will not have to do again.
But just as we were dropping off, you said, by the way, I think we need to do something about immigration.
We really need to look at that.
And I was reaching for my mute button to turn it off so I could talk to you about it, and you went away, and you were very – I just to make sure, you know, we were not stunned into silence. I was muted by Skype into silence. But I do want to know,
I do want to know just one follow up from that. How do you feel right now? What do you feel right
now? If you say you were running for statewide office somewhere, what would your, what would
the, what would Larry, Senator Kudlow's immigration policy
be? Well, look, I've been pretty clear about this on National Review and elsewhere. I'm basically
for a moratorium, a wartime moratorium, Rob, whether it's Syrian refugees or European visas or visa waivers or new immigration.
I want a moratorium because judging from FBI Director Jim Comey and former National Security Director General Flynn, retired General Flynn, retired four star, we don't know.
We don't have the information.
We don't have the folders who these people are. And we know that ISIS is gaming the system
through this refugee business and probably through the immigration business,
which has damaged Europe enormously. So my take is we have got to have a thoroughgoing reform of
immigration. And I just at the moment want to put a moratorium on new
immigrants. I feel that that is the safest way to conduct this war. And we are in a war. And if it
takes two or three years to sort out, then so be it. Good. Okay. I'm glad you clarified that. I
don't disagree. I just felt like you didn't get a chance to fully say that.
And you didn't have to hear me say, oh, that makes sense. So part we've finished the last podcast and we can begin with this.
Larry Peter Robinson here in California. Welcome back, buddy.
I'm fine. I'm fine. This is you on CNBC. Yeah. CNBC in December. I'm quoting you. First of all, I think if Donald
Trump finishes second in Iowa, exactly what he did. If he wins in New Hampshire, exactly what
he's done. And he wins in South Carolina and polls have him up. And I think those are plausible
scenarios, said Larry, predicting exactly what would happen. He is going to be the GOP nominee.
He is going to be the nominee, close quote. Do you still believe he is going to be the GOP nominee. He is going to be the nominee, close quote. Do you still
believe he is going to be the nominee? Peter, I just love you. Some Kudlow forecasts work
and some don't. Right now, I'm still hanging on to this one. That's the way it looks to me.
All right. I have one addendum. Yes. After my I mean, I interviewed Trump and Kasich and and and Bush up in in Manchester, New Hampshire.
And I have a long interview with John Kasich. And he's got a much better message now.
And as you know, he finished second. So I'm flirting, Peter. I'm flirting with a Trump Kasich ticket.
Well, OK, let's we'll come back to Trump in a moment.
But Kasich is a very popular governor of Ohio, and Ohio is a must-have state for the GOP nominee this time around.
So just on the raw politics of the matter, that is a non-crazy idea.
Larry, I commend you.
Another non-crazy Kudlow idea.
Back to Trump.
I want to calibrate your position on Donald Trump right
now. You were not one of the 22 authors in national reviews against Trump issue. So are you,
and I'm sure that it would have crossed Rich Lowry's mind, do we get Larry in this or do we
not? Are you pro-Trump? Are you anti-anti-Trump? What is your
thinking about Donald Trump right now? Well, it's favorable. I haven't endorsed because we have a
committee to unleash prosperity here in New York with Steve Forbes and Art Laffer and Steve Moore.
We don't endorse. We advise. Okay. Having said that, I have endorsed Donald Trump's business tax cut of 15% corporate
tax rate, as well as other details. I think it's hugely pro-growth, and I think it's exactly on
the right path. So do I agree with Donald on everything? No, I do not. I don't believe in
deportation of the illegals here at home.
I'm not sure on trade.
I think I hate China as much as he does.
They lie, cheat, steal.
They're making a $600 billion deal with Iran.
But I don't think so far that Donald has done the best he can with a strategy on that,
an economic strategy in particular. On the other hand, gosh, I watched him last night in a very good interview with Sean Hannity,
and he talked about a lot of great things, reforming, abolishing and reforming Obamacare,
strengthening military, strengthening veterans, cutting the budget, tax cuts.
And here's one point.
Look, Peter, I'm a message guy, all right?
I'm not a horse race guy. I'm a message guy.
What I what I think I saw in New Hampshire, particularly in the last week leading up to the election, is Trump consciously developed a very positive, optimistic message.
Right. Right. Make America great again. Make America great again.
He went back to that and he filled in some blanks on economic growth and jobs, which I really like.
And similarly, I think John Kasich did.
I think Kasich really moved to a positive, optimistic message.
When John and I talked, we talked about, you know, the message of Jack Kemp, who was my mentor.
Right. Sure.
Great friend of John's. And, you know, I said, keep that up,
positive, optimistic growth. We can solve these problems. And I think it really helped Kasich
close strong. So I can't emphasize enough the need for a positive message on the economy,
which was the number one issue. And I think those two guys are
getting it. Not everybody else. Jeb Bush, to some extent, got it. Yes, I had a good interview with
Jeb. But that's the stuff I look at. And I think if they continue that in South Carolina, you may
see, you know, Trump. Larry, Larry, one more on Trump. You've spent the last, what, 25 years of your life in Manhattan.
You were an economist at a big investment bank.
And then, of course, you had your show where you had guest after guest.
You're the kind of guy who has lunch every so often at the Four Seasons.
You know these people.
Do you like Donald Trump?
Tell us about this man as a man.
Well, OK.
I've known Donald Trump for many years. Yes. I'm not a close friend.
I'm not part of his inner circle. I have interviewed him on a number of occasions.
I've been with him on a number of occasions. He's always been very good to me, very kind to me.
And I appreciate that. In fact, I tell a story many years ago when I was going through my crash and burn and had to resign from Bear Stearns.
I remember I remember bumping into Donald on Fifth Avenue one day and he came up to me and shook my hand and said, are you OK?
And I said, I think so.
And he made sure he said, did they take care of you because you did great work for them? And I said, yes, they did. And I've never forgotten that. He doesn't have he didn't have to do that. And he did. And other times in our relationship, he's complimented me when I was doing the Cutler report every night that I had very good ratings. He followed those things. He's just, in my opinion,
that kind of personal relationship and all the charitable and philanthropic things he does,
which, by the way, is just slowly dribbling out. He never talks about how he's helped people.
I think he is a good man. Yes, I do. Okay. And one more question about Donald Trump. And then
Rob wants to get back in here.
I don't know how to put this in a way that won't make you either laugh or tell me to drop dead.
But at some basic level, here's the question.
Is he crazy?
This notion that he'd be a dangerous president, that he'd get into office, he'd be rocketing from one position to another.
Who knows who he would listen?
Is he crazy or is there in there a calculating, serious businessman
who would do the best he could to transfer his skills of seriousness
and being businesslike to the Oval Office?
Oh, I think the latter, Peter, by far.
By far.
This craziness stuff is itself crazy.
He's a very smart businessman. He reads a lot. He's current on public issues. Yes, down through the last 20 years, he has made some changes. By the way, I just saw a clip. A tweeter sent me a great YouTube of him on the Larry King show praising Dan Quayle at the Republican Convention and throwing his support behind Bush
Quayle. That was back in 88. Well, he has also said to people he voted for McCain and he voted
for George W. Bush twice before that. Look, Donald is not a public policy maven the way we are. OK,
it's he's a businessman. Right. But he's kept up to speed. And I think he's come
around on some things. I think he has more work to do. He'd be the first guy to admit that.
But his basic general points, which are what matters in an election, people don't go through
the 20 page policy papers. And not unlike Reagan, he has basic general points, compass points on the economy, on restoring
American greatness, on winning the war against ISIS, and on optimism. We can make America great
again. That's what you have to look at. And I just take the position that he's extremely serious.
And if he were in the White House, I would have high hopes on that, frankly.
Hey, Larry, it's Rob again. Can we just talk a little more generally about the way things are
now and the way things are being described? I made the terrible mistake of watching the
Democratic debate. And I was just so depressed when I watched it. I thought, God, everything's so terrible. It's a very strange kind of cognitive problem when you're praising the current president who's been president for eight years but also saying we live in this apocalyptic hellhole. Is Bernie Sanders right? Is Hillary Clinton right? And in many ways, is Donald Trump right? Are we in the worst position ever? How bad are things? How much work do we have to do? I still believe as a kid when I was Reagan's one of Reagan's budget deputies, things the economy was was really bad, much worse.
And our foreign policy position, however, was probably equally bad as it is today.
So I don't know how to answer that specifically.
But look, things are not good. America, in some respects, is in decline. And our foreign policy, our military policy is an utter disaster. Obama is a disastrous foreign policy national security president, utterly disastrous. OK, worse than Jimmy Carter ever was. So that's where the big holes are. As an optimist, Rob, down through the years,
I believe these things can be fixed. I believe the economy can be fixed with the right incentives
and better support for business and so forth. And I think the foreign policy story is going
to take longer, but we could begin to take actions right now. I mean, listen to General Jack Keane, retired General Jack Keane.
I was just reading his latest testimony before Congress.
I mean, he has a terrific game plan to destroy ISIS in Syria and Iraq and to deal with the,
you know, hijacking of Islam by these crazy Muslim jihadists.
So, you know, we can do this stuff, but we got to replace
the whole administration. Look, Bernie Sanders, come back to that. Bernie Sanders is trying to
be a revolutionary and he is a socialist of some kind and his tax and spend policies are off the
charts. You're talking about $20 trillion of spending and taxing, which would really help
to destroy what's left of the American economy. It'll never fly. What does fly is his anti-establishment
attitudes. That's flying because people are sick of Washington, D.C. Regarding Hillary Clinton,
I don't know what she's, I don't know what her message is. I don't understand it.
Other than women should vote for her, which they didn't in New Hampshire, which they did not follow orders.
That's for sure. Right. They didn't follow orders that jerk jerk Madeleine Albright and Gloria Steinem.
I mean, I've known Gloria a million years, but I didn't think that that Madeleine Albright would be that.
But that's not a message. Women should vote for me because I'm a woman.
What what is her what where would she take
this country? Obama's third term. Are you kidding me? I mean, I guess some people in New York,
this is a little snarky, but they say she's got to win so she can pardon herself. I mean,
I just think she's got so many problems out there. I do not understand her camp. I don't understand
her candidacy. I don't understand her candidacy.
I don't get it. If I go back one more time, just to the people who seem to be responding on one side to Bernie Sanders and on the other to Trump, working class Americans who really feel like
cutting corporate taxes, a pro-growth agenda, all that stuff, that's fine for people who are
already doing OK.
People who are doing OK are going to do much better under those policies.
What do you say to people who really feel like the past – not eight years, but 10 years or 20 years or 30 years have been stagnant at best?
Fifteen years. Fifteen.
Fifteen. OK.
And that's bipartisan, by the way.
Right. That's what I mean. That's what I mean. What do you say to them? How do you how do you if you're a Republican, especially how do you frame a pro-growth agenda?
It doesn't sound like we're going to, you know, once once again, it's going to be a boon for the financial industry.
Well, look, there's two sides here. Bernie Sanders is addressing the problem of economic decline by saying that government
will fix it. So give them all your money, give them all your money, and then the government
will hand it out and we'll fix it. All right. Ultimately, that's a really big losing message.
OK, Donald Trump is saying we're in trouble. Middle class wage earners have lost badly in the last 15 years. No question. Poverty is growing. No question. But what Donald is saying is basically let the free market business community help you. them you've got your back and encourage them to build and expand. You know, just one thing.
I believe the most important single economic stimulant today would be slashing the business
tax rate to 15 percent for large and small companies, Rob, both. And the Republicans
don't articulate this as well as Trump and a few others. They don't.
Now, you look at the evidence here.
Corporate tax cuts will benefit middle class wage earners the most.
The most.
And that needs to be said.
And they're not saying it yet as clearly as they should.
You go to the work of our friend Kevin Hassett at AEI and many others.
My pal Jared Bernstein, an Obama advisor,
agrees that the business tax cut would help the middle class.
He might disagree with me on the quantities and so forth.
But there you have it.
So tell these folks that this is what you intend to do.
And furthermore, and I like this a lot,
when I interviewed Donald Trump, I asked him,
I said, you're out there campaigning against big drug companies, big oil companies,
big insurance companies, and others.
And he said right back, you bet I am,
he said, they are giving huge amounts of money
to these candidates, he was aiming at Jeb Bush particularly, so they can get special favors. And I think Trump's got a point there. That stuff's got to end. Now, a guy like Paul Ryan, who was long chased after corporate welfare like I have and Steve Moore has the story right. But the GOP hasn't articulated that story correctly. And then I asked Donald,
do you aim to change the Republican Party? And he said, yes, I do. It's one of the reasons I'm
running and they need it. So when I hear that stuff, Rob, I say the guy is completely on the
right track, completely. He doesn't have all the policy details. And yeah, they've got
some disagreements with him, but he's on the right track. He's anti-establishment. And his son,
here's the thing of this, in an odd sort of way, you know, people talking about Michael Bloomberg
running as an independent. You know what? Donald Trump is the independent. He just happens to be
doing it inside the Republican Party. I think that's a really good point. That is probably the best way for me to wrap my head around Donald Trump candidacy.
But I think that is in fact how he's running.
I think that's exactly right.
I know.
And look, the fact that he's not taking money, all right, he's in a position to do that.
God bless him.
I think that's a great thing right now.
Very important thing.
He is saying, I will not be influenced by K Street,
the big corporations in the Chamber of Commerce. And he is saying I'm going to speak directly
to the middle class on Main Street, to Democrats and independents, as well as Republicans. Look,
I I does he have it all right? No, nobody does. But when I hear that, I say to myself, the guy's going in the right direction. And as long as he stays positive and optimistic because people want that, then he has the capacity to be a truly great leader. All right. I can't forecast the future any better than you can. But I'm saying he has the capacity to truly be a great leader.
Well, there are those who say that when he gets in as president, the problem will be is that he doesn't have any natural allies, that he doesn't have anybody who rode the same wave, that he doesn't have people he can turn to. state who could be on his side. Nobody comes to mind, but speaking of certain Northeast States,
any announcement statement you might care to make here today?
I will have something to say about all that next week.
Oh,
really next week.
Well,
Senator,
thank you.
I wouldn't,
I wouldn't draw any conclusions.
I'm just telling you fellas because you're friends of mine.
Come on.
We can dream, can't we, Larry?
Yes, I love it when you dream.
And you two are among the cleverest of the clever.
But I'm just going to say I'm not falling out on either side.
I'm just saying I promised everybody before the end of February.
And right now, in all likelihood, we will have something to say next week.
Great. Great. All right. We can wait one more week for Christmas.
You guys are the best. Rob Long, what are you writing? I want to know what you're writing, man.
Well, you know, I'm sitting here. I'm in New York City. I'm just writing little scripts,
hoping to get something on the air. You know, I've got to capitalize on whatever
next fall's optimism is going to be. That's what I'm looking for.
I want you to both come on the Larry Kudlow radio show.
We're in 180 cities.
I want you both to come on.
You got it.
You got it.
I'm going to get you both on because I love these podcasts.
We do.
I think it's great stuff.
Let me just circle back.
There are other – I just want to make this point to balance my view.
There are other talented Republicans in this race.
I want to make that very clear.
I think Ted Cruz has a lot of pluses, a lot of pluses, particularly good on free market economics. And I really, really admired his anti-ethanol crusade in Iowa,
where he beat Governor Branstad, who was saying anybody but Cruz. So I give Cruz high marks on a
number of positions. We've talked about Kasich's better message, And Kasich has a great track record. I also think Jeb Bush has improved his message considerably.
And perhaps he's still very much in the race.
I don't know.
And I think Marco Rubio, who got slammed in the debate, I'm not ready to write him off either.
He has a very strong national security message.
In fact, I want these candidates, I want them to declare war on ISIS.
This is one of my bugaboos.
I've talked to General Keen about this.
I don't know why they haven't said, if elected, we will declare war on ISIS.
They've declared war on us.
We should have done it after the horrible Paris bombing.
Why aren't we just coming out and saying that to rally America and deal with this as a war?
It's a life and death war, and we should declare war on them.
I don't disagree. I don't disagree.
And I think that that's probably one of the sad – one of the disappointments of this primary season, maybe because it's so cacophonous, so many people, just so much jockeying and positioning, that we haven't really gotten deeply into that stuff yet to get a sense that there's a big Republican consensus. But thank you
for. I agree. And I think I think they haven't gotten deep enough into national security. And
frankly, they haven't gotten deep enough into the economy. The last two the last two debates
were basically economy free, except for a couple of sentences. They were economy free. So then you look at the exit polls in New Hampshire, right?
Number one issue, economy, jobs.
I mean, by a wide margin.
So there's too much backing and forthing and attacking and, you know, and tweaking and whatnot.
Let's get down to the fundamental issues that America worries about, which is economic security and national security.
Remember, Peter Robinson, Ronald Reagan said, if you're weak at home, you're weak abroad.
Absolutely.
But if you're strong at home, you're strong abroad.
And I think that is a lesson. And I'd like to hear our candidates really put it in those stark terms.
I would, too.
All right.
Our fingers are crossed and we're going to sort of
sit on the edge of our seats until
next week, where we hope we'll get
some good news.
Ronald Reagan also said
Larry Kudlow in Connecticut.
I can just see something. Yeah, I think that's right.
I think I heard him say that.
Rob Long, now that I know you're in New York,
in order to cut off
Peter Robinson, I'm going to take you to the Four Seasons.
Oh, man.
I hope you can handle it.
I have tears, tears in my eyes.
I have to stop this Robinson, California assault and take you, Rob, to the Four Seasons.
That's the pinnacle.
Who knows?
You might get a sit down with Donald Trump.
I don't know.
Yeah, could happen.
I love this. Kudlow says we need to take down the establishment.
By the way, you free for lunch before seasons. That's believable.
That's the beauty of being a New Yorker. That's exactly right.
Hey, Larry, thanks a lot. I will take you up on that. You're all wonderful.
Thank you for having me. Really. Thanks, Larry. Bye bye. You know, I mean, Peter, I actually feel like we should get Larry should be cutting spots for Donald Trump.
Not, you know, endorsement spots, but just that, you know, whenever he he it makes me feel because he knows the man.
He's known him for a while. It makes me feel a little bit more comfortable.
That's exactly what I was going to say.ry hasn't sold me personally on donald trump but he has sold me on the notion
that look relax it wouldn't be a catastrophe the guy's heart is fundamentally in the right place
and he's listening to people like me larry kudlow who got his training under ronald reagan and has
been fighting ever since for economic growth and simple justice in the country. I mean, it, it makes me feel more comfortable.
Yeah, I think, I think so. I think so. Speaking of comfortable,
how's this for a, for a segue? We lost James, James had a run,
so we lost him. So I'm going to do the comfortable Casper mattress spot.
Casper is an online retailer.
No, no fraction of the price. Don't you interrupt me. That's rude.
That was just a one word segue. Use the word comfortable. Casper is an online retailer. No, no. A fraction of the price. Don't you interrupt me. That's rude.
That was just a one-word segue.
Use the word comfortable.
One stinking word.
All right. Go ahead.
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Talk to Kevin Williamson.
He's a huge fan of his Casper mattress, and we are huge fans of the next guest, Michael Barone, dean of American political journalists.
That's all you need to know.
Follow him on Twitter, at Michael Barone, all one word, and you'll know anything there is to know about American politics.
He is right now in a car in South Carolina on the side of the road. Michael, who's going to win South Carolina? Well, I'm in Calhoun County, South Carolina. I'm not sure that it's a bellwether county. But right now, I would say that Hillary Clinton will win the Democratic primary. I would lot of uncertainty about who will come black Americans in the 2008 primaries, that whether she's got
weaknesses that will give her more trouble as the road goes on. Michael, Peter here. What would she
have to do? Just following up on your observation right there, what sort of margin would she need
in South Carolina and particularly what sort of margin would she need among African-American voters to put in a really decisive victory?
I ask this bearing in mind that on the front page of The Wall Street Journal yesterday was a picture of Bernie Sanders having a cup of coffee with Al Sharpton.
So Bernie Sanders is clearly serious about going after the African-American vote.
Well, Bernie Sanders is actually going with Al Sharpton to do research on weight loss,
which Sharpton has been very good at.
Who is a prim man at age 74, nonetheless wants to keep in shape.
You know, one of the traditions of black Americans is unity. If you go to a black church before an election, you'll hear a preacher talk about, the speakers talk about unity. And that's
a rational point of view. If you are a member of, self-consciously feel yourself to be a member of
a minority group that's discriminated against, that was once enslaved, then you may very
well say, to get maximum political leverage, we have to stick together and all vote one
way.
And we've seen that in general elections, Republican until the new field, Democratic
the last 50 years.
We've seen it in primary elections, even when the second-choice candidate has very good credentials on black issues
of particular importance to black voters, that's the case.
I think if Hillary Clinton gets less than 80 percent of votes from black Americans in
South Carolina, which is a figure that President Obama got against her eight years ago, is going to be a sign of weakness and a
sign that she's got some problems among black voters, as she did among white so-called beer
Democrats, non-college and so forth in New Hampshire. Eight years ago, she carried them
against Obama. She was weaker this
time. She ran four points behind her 2008 showing in Manchester, the largest city there, even though
that was a three-way race in 2008 and only a two-way race this time. She got a lower percentage
of the votes against Sanders than she did against Obama and John Edwards.
So let me underline that.
Anything less than 80% of the black vote in South Carolina is trouble for Hillary.
Trouble.
I don't mean that it means that she loses the nomination, but I mean that it's going
to be continued trouble.
She is going to have to go on to these southern states in the Super Tuesday
primary and once again emphasize, as she did in the debate last night with Sanders, that
she wants to have change in police tactics. That's a dangerous proposal for her in terms of a general election perspective. But she'll be incentivized to do
that. And also in states like Michigan and Illinois, you've got one quarter of the voters
in 2008 primaries were black Americans in those states in the Democratic primary. And so if they she needs something like unanimity in order to shore up her weaknesses
with young voters, her weaknesses with blue collar voters, not as strong as she used to be,
and her weakness with with middle income voters, which has also showed up in New Hampshire.
Michael, do you have a kind of gut feeling?
I want to ask about the Republican side, and I know Rob does in just a moment.
But last question about Hillary.
Do you have the kind of gut feeling that this just isn't working?
She's older than she was.
She now represents such a mixed policy point of view from standing for her husband, a centrist
Democrat, to last
night's debate where she was moving to the left and trying to out-scream Bernie Sanders.
Do you have that feeling? Or is it just me? Of course, where the wish may be father to the
thought in my case. You're the analyst. It's not just you. She's clearly a less than ideal candidate. Think back to 1992 when Bill Clinton
was running. He set an agenda for Democrats, the sort of new Democrat agenda, which he and people
like Al Frum of the Democratic Leadership Council developed over a period of years.
This year, Bernie Sanders is setting the agenda. Hillary's reduced to explaining why single-payer health care won't
cost too much, but she wants to extend Obamacare, which has minority support in the country.
She's following him up on these police tactics thing in order to shore up her hope for near
unanimity among black voters. She's on the defensive.
Those of us who believe in free markets believe that competition gives you a better product.
Hillary Clinton has not got much competition in this race except from Bernie Sanders on the left,
and she's showing weakness.
If you'd had a larger field, as the Republicans did, I think somebody else would have emerged out ahead of her.
Rob, do you want to ask Trump or Shalani?
Yeah.
Go ahead.
Interesting thing you said about setting the agenda.
And I suspect that that's a really interesting thought.
Donald Trump is leaving the South Carolina primary. He's not going to compete here. Just kidding. Go ahead. the Republicans? Is he setting the agenda? It's hard for me to understand what that agenda is, except, you know, none of the above. You're all crooks getting rid of you. But that that also has
been very successful. I mean, people have been I don't know how you can make a small fortune if
you bet against all the people betting for a Donald Trump flame out since since August.
No matter what happens in South Carolina, he's going to be in the top tier.
He's going to be a contender all the way to the convention.
And if he wins in South Carolina, how is he not the nominee?
Well, you know, Donald Trump first caught our attention, got the nation's attention in June when he announced and staked out the immigration issue. Interestingly, in Iowa and New Hampshire, only about 12-13% of exit poll or entrance poll, people said that immigration was a top issue. People were concerned
about other issues. But I think what Trump established on that is that he's a candidate
against political correctness, against saying what you're supposed to say about things.
And in effect, he's running against the last two presidents.
He's running against Barack Obama, who he condemns on a number of grounds,
including the Iran nuclear deal, which he says is a ridiculously weak deal,
and that's not supported by a majority of Americans, certainly not both Republicans.
He's also campaigning in effect against George W. Bush, against the Iraq War, against not cutting the spending enough, not getting enough tightness, not stimulating the economy enough.
So he's running in effect against both administrations. And right now you've got a situation where majority of Americans disapprove of each one of them.
But just sheer politics.
A really decisive win in New Hampshire.
He goes to South Carolina.
South Carolina, I think, is a rough state.
That politics down there is blood sport.
If he wins in South Carolina, I mean, isn't he the presumptive nominee?
I mean, he's a Republican after all.
Republicans tend to sort this stuff out right around now, don't they? I think that if he wins in South Carolina, he's got a good, clear flight path to the
nomination.
It's not guaranteed he's going to get there, but it certainly would be a strong indication
for him.
I mean, the results that came out of New Hampshire in many ways were ideal for Donald Trump's
campaign for the nomination.
Not only did he win 35 percent of the vote and lead the next finishing candidate with 16 percent,
but he guaranteed that he would continue to have divided opposition. I mean, we know that Trump
has a relatively high floor on his support, you know, 24% in Iowa, 35% in New Hampshire.
We have reason to believe that there may be a low ceiling in New Hampshire.
I suppose 47% said they would be dissatisfied if Trump won the nomination.
But that would make him vulnerable in a one-on-one situation.
But right now, he's one against four in South Carolina.
You've got John Kasich, who gets a certain amount of attention from having finished second in New Hampshire.
But that was based on an upscale liberal cultural values, moderate heart, ideological identification, demographic.
That's a lot more numerous in New Hampshire than it is in South Carolina.
He hasn't got money.
I saw him do an event, and he says, look, I'm just going to say what I want to say,
and if I lose, I go home.
That's not necessarily a winning attitude. And then you have an effective three-way tie between Ted Cruz,
Jeb Bush, and Marco Rubio. None of them has a reason to withdraw at this point. Each of them
has a rationale, which is certainly going to be persuasive to him to continue. Ted Cruz has got
support from evangelicals who are numerous, 65% of the 2012 Republican primary electorate in South Carolina.
I'm going to an event right now with Tony Perkins, the Family Values conservative, who's got support from, you know, his his father and his brother.
One important racist in South Carolina primary.
There are Bush people on the ground.
Lots of Jeb exclamation point signs running around.
He is energized by finishing, you know, a half a point ahead of Marco Lupio.
And in an event two days ago, I saw Jeb Bush.
He was on fire talking about education reform, his record,
the persecution of Christians in Iraq, and the need for more military.
You go, Marco Rubio, he took a hit after that debate.
It took him down from about 15% to about 11% in the polls.
That's the difference between being a potential for a good second-place finish,
which would have made him a major competitor against Trump,
and a fifth-place finish, which makes him on the defensive.
But he drew a big crowd yesterday, an enthusiastic crowd at Myrtle Beach and was ad-libbing quite cleverly.
Michael, so –
He's almost banned the ball at it.
So look at those four guys.
You have Rubio, Cruz, Bush, Kasich, and they're all kind of looking at each other saying, you first.
You drop out first.
But what if they're all kind of looking at each other saying, you first, you drop out first. But what if they're all wrong? What if that 47, 50 percent low ceiling, we say for Trump,
what if that's a little bit higher than that? What if, you know, when Marco drops out or Ted
Cruz drops out? If his ceiling is a little higher, I think he's pretty clear the Republican nominee.
We don't know how high his ceiling is.
It's changed during the course of the campaign and has gone higher, at least at some point.
Michael, Peter's last question for you. Every four years, as you well know, every four years,
people start saying at some point during the campaign, you know what? This year, the GOP is going to have a brokered convention. They're going to have the first ballot. Nobody's going to win a majority.
And it's going to then in the succeeding ballots, the delegates will be released. An open convention,
I think, is more properly called. And every year, they're wrong. That happened in the old days when
there were fewer primaries.
But now the primary system provides far too much opportunity for somebody to build up ahead of steam. The last time it was even close was all the way back in 1976.
And Gerald Ford won on the first ballot, even then defeating Ronald Reagan.
Is there going to be a brokered convention this time? Well, there's going to be a brokered convention because nobody's got a majority of delegates coming out of the primaries of the caucuses.
It's going to be brokered before the convention.
The reason the conventions were open in the old days was that they were a unique communications medium, the only place where politicians could do real negotiating. Those, you know, the first long distance, direct distance dialing call was in 1951.
The first commercial jet aircraft flight in the U.S. was 1958.
The last multi-ballot convention was 1952.
It's not a coincidence that all those developments occurred at the same time.
Politicians now can communicate all over the country and are doing so as we speak.
So brokering will go on. It looks like we're going to have a guy that wrote a book called
The Art of the Deal involved in the brokering. Sometimes deals go up to the last minute,
but I think people are going to be communicating with the delegates and figuring out where they're
going. So I think the convention will continue to be a formality,
but the brokering will go on starting on June 7th,
or really starting yesterday.
Michael, don't you secretly, I should ask you,
I should admit that I secretly do, not so secretly,
don't you secretly think it'd be cool to have a broker convention?
Just because it'd be cool to have a broker convention just just because it'd be it'd just be a cool thing well i think in order to have in order to have
an old style convention you would have to ban long distance telephone calls shut down the internet
and ban all um jet aircraft flight in the united states you can see the way that we can do those
things uh we'll get a broker convention.
Otherwise, no.
Seems like a small price to pay.
We've got to bring back indoor cigar smoking.
That's the other thing we've got to bring back.
Michael, thank you very much.
It was great to catch up with you.
Good luck at the cruise rally
later today.
Abbeville, South Carolina.
Good luck. Thanks for having me on. Appreciate it. Thank you South Carolina. Good luck.
Thanks for having me on. Appreciate it.
Thank you, Michael. Thank you.
Spittoons! Spittoons!
Leave it to Rob Law!
You need it all. You need to have the whole thing.
You need all the old-timey things.
Spittoons, cigar smoking,
little deals
happening in barbershops. Remember when
Ronald Reagan would always complain that whenever he showed up at his barber in Beverly Hills, Armand Hammer, who then was the chairman and owner of Occidental Petroleum, would also show up just to be in the next chair.
It was always – oh, what a coincidence.
And I think finally Reagan turned to whoever was running the barbershop and said, how much is he paying you?
I'll pay you double to not make me sit next to this guy.
Speaking of shaving.
Oh, no.
I don't have to do it.
I don't have to be that good.
I love you like a brother, but there are moments when I miss James.
Of course.
That's another one.
By the way, we should explain.
James had to go.
And we should have said that at the time.
Anyway, sorry.
Go ahead.
Yeah.
Speaking of –
I'm sorry to somebody.
We had a great Ricochet meetup in New Hampshire last weekend.
It was a lot of fun.
We met – we were all like – we all met at the little bar in the hotel, this big – the Radisson, which is basically the epicenter of all American politics for that weekend. And the booth we had was right behind the MSNBC set, which I loved.
And so it was a lot of fun. But someone asked me, he said, well, so it's fun when you and
James, when James pretends to be upset when you interrupt his segues. I was like, yeah,
he does not pretend
james is a professional he likes it to be professional um speaking of shaving harry's.com
was started by two guys passionate about creating a better shaving experience uh and and they
managed to what i said on the on the podcast that night was what they solved was among other things
this idiotic thing you do now where you –
when you go to the CVS or wherever to get your razor blades, they're behind plastic.
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Yes, it is.
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And we thank Harry's Shave.
Harry's has been an incredible,
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And I think it's probably
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Ricochet listeners are smart
and they know a good deal.
They get one and they see, and they take it.
And I hope, in addition to taking the deal with Harry's, that you will also take the Ricochet membership deal.
If you are a member of Ricochet, we thank you.
If you are not, please go to Ricochet.com right now and sign up.
30 days free.
There is no downside to this.
It's a win-win.
You get 30 days free of Ricochet.
You get to check out the community, participate in the conversations.
And if you don't like it, you can quit.
But if you do, you can stick around.
And I know that you will.
You will stick around.
I met somebody the other day at this meetup.
Not at the meetup because meetups are only for members.
But he came to the nr event
at and he's kind of like yeah i'm listening i'm kind of a freeloader like well dude
join what do you think this is all happening because of ricochet we're here because of
ricochet we create a community because of ricochet um join join and did he did he promise um
see i put him a promise i put him no two or three people
did join that night they got ricochet moxie okay good good i don't know if he was one of them but
but they did because the way things are you and i may end up going door to door and i want to make
sure that if we end up doing that you can at least persuade people when you're you've got a foot in
their door all right yeah exactly right. Exactly right. So go ahead.
No, I was going to ask you the big news here.
We have John Walker on Ricochet and Tim Hamill.
It's Tim, I think.
Tim, is it Tim?
Tim K.
Tim K.
Tim K.
Okay.
Tim K.
Explaining to us the discovery of gravitational waves.
I know it's, you make me understand, you make me understand a,
what it is and B why people super smart people like Tim K and John Walker consider it important.
Well,
that's what luckily they're going to be.
John Walker's going to be on,
uh,
uh,
next week and he's going to explain this.
Yeah.
Well,
so you,
what's your,
your job right now is to give me the printer.
So I don't sound totally stupid when we talk to John next week.
I don't know.
I was reading it yesterday.
I read the article yesterday. I actually can't get past just being in awe of the fact that all these smart people did this.
And they did this in this giant collaborative effort.
It's really kind of interesting. And also I'm just so now immersed deeply, deeply brewed in politics that I can't think about it. I can't – I mean here's the loans for, I don't know, French literature or old English or psychology.
We will give you student loans if you're going to study something cool and interesting and hard science.
Those are hard scientists.
That's what I love about those people.
They proved a thing.
They measured something and they built a machine They proved a thing. They measured something and
they built a machine that did a thing and they measured it. And then that's a hard science,
right? You can't argue with them. They don't identify as astrophysicists. They are astrophysicists.
And so I feel like that's something we should be celebrating. John Walker can explain what it all
means, but I know what it means politically. And it means that the future in this country
is going to be in the hard sciences. um we better all know that you and i
can just sit there with our knitting and our rocking chairs by the fireplace and watch the
science scientists go on and that if we're gonna if we're gonna if we're gonna do something that's
good money to be done so you're in new york now correct? I'm in New York City, yes.
And I was explaining this just the other day.
I realized that you had actually told me – I hadn't realized what a bizarre thing it was until I heard it coming out of my own mouth that Rob Long is in New York because he has some serious writing to do.
His whole background and training is in half-hour sitcom, which is one form, one discipline. And he's now working on an hour long drama and he can't get any work done in Venice beach, California, because it's too distracting.
The only place he can work is Manhattan. And I said this because you'd said it. And somehow when
you told me it made sense. And I said this and the person listening to me, the eyes just got
bigger and bigger. Explain that. Would you please, how is it that you can get work done in Manhattan?
Well, there's no explanation for it. It's all just, you know,
the reality is that New York's a fun place to be.
Oh, go there
for the distractions. It's all nonsense.
Well, life is a
distraction, isn't it? I mean, that's
as the Buddha has taught
us. I don't know.
I don't have a finish for that, but yeah.
Serious question, though, as you work your way into this new form, how is it different?
You're doubling the amount of time and you're shifting from –
Yeah, it's twice as many pages. Yeah. Twice as hard. It's really interesting. It's a lot of fun to do.
I'm not sure whether this project that I just finished is going to go forward or not. It might,
but it won't be until soon.
Think about the commercial aspect. Just what did you learn as a writer taking on a new or a new discipline? The fun of writing a kind of,
it's a light one hour. It's not a serious drama. It's a, it's a sort of a romantic mystery. The
fun of writing that is that it doesn't have to be that funny. It only has to be a little bit funny.
And, um, so the pressure, you know, the pressure's off. Yeah. So like I put in three or four funny
little things and by people just like freaked out that, Oh, this is so great. We love it. So hilarious.
And I'm thinking, my God, if if if a staff writer on one of the comedy shows I'd worked on had turned in the script with this few with a laugh every five, six, seven, eight pages, I'd fire him on the spot.
But just somehow there's just a difference, different, different expectation from the audience too.
And part of the fun of it is – I mean with a comedy, you're really trying to construct a story.
It's a character story.
The character believes this, feels this, changes somehow.
With a drama, with a mystery, romantic mystery, you're also kind of overlaying a plot, right, an intrigue, which is –
That's different.
That's a different discipline.
Who did the thing?
Yeah, who did the thing?
And a lot of this I had no brain for.
I had to develop a brain for it.
I was like, I don't know.
They find a clue.
They put it in the clue machine.
Who cares?
It's all about the banter between the characters.
But in fact, that is not true.
It does matter.
So I learned that.
And the notion is that each mystery is an hour
long that it's not you don't find the solution to the mystery at the end of the whole series you
find well each hour well peter now there's the mystery of the week and then there's the ongoing
characters and the ongoing who the guy is and who he really is and what he really did and what she
really thinks oh you, it gets complicated.
Wheels within wheels, Chief.
Exactly. Exactly right. Exactly right.
Wonderful. All right. Well, having prompted Larry Kudlow to run for the Senate in Connecticut,
having taught ourselves how to feel better about Donald Trump, having decided that the campaign
of Hillary Clinton is doomed, I think you and I have pretty much done our work for the day.
It's been a big morning.
I was most – I have to say I need to cogitate more on the Trump business.
Yes.
And I love Larry, so maybe I'll do it over our fancy lunch at the Four Seasons. But I still – I mean here are the things that I'm concerned about.
He says he's like – he's solid on some – on issues of growth.
I am terrified of a trade war.
Yes.
And I use as my – as Exhibit A, the trade war that essentially started the Great Depression.
Yes.
Elongated it.
I am worried about a president – another president because we have one who's a loudmouth and talks a lot and says, there's a red line here.
Here's a red line and doesn't really follow through for a whole bunch of reasons.
Maybe good reasons, but doesn't know how to shut up.
And he kept saying this the other night.
And I just find it to me.
It is until I tell someone explains to me why it doesn't matter.
It really is a it's a of course the killing thing.
He keeps saying we're going to bomb ISIS and we're going to take their oil.
Yeah.
I don't think – that's a nonsensical statement.
What do you mean take their oil?
How are you going to take it, honey?
It's like – what is this?
There may be blood.
They're going to drink their milkshake.
How are you going to do it?
And I think the only way to do it is to actually invade the
country exactly exactly exactly which of course he doesn't want to do but if he doesn't want to
do it then he should shut up and stop saying something so stupid right and because people
are because if i mean i find it irritating but uh the foreigners our enemies over there will find it
hilarious they will laugh at it we don't need another laughingstock president. And I just kind of – and every time I mention this to Trump supporters who are – I don't know any – I know there are some.
I don't know though. I don't know.
I don't know any dumb ones. I don't know any dumb Trump supporters. I know there are some yahoos out there. I see them on Twitter and they're repellent. But all the ones that I know or interact with are really smart. And I still haven't gotten an answer to that.
Well, you ask that over lunch at the Four Seasons with Larry and tell all the rich.
By the way, when you're at the Four Seasons, just be sure to smile and say hello to people, because those are all the people we now know who pay two hundred and twenty five thousand dollars per speech.
We know that because they've paid that to Hillary
Clinton. So I think that's a pretty good place to, you know, work the room a little bit, Rob.
Yeah. See if you can get a few speaking gigs. Guys from Goldman and Morgan are sure to be all
everywhere. Yeah, we need somebody to invest in our big fancy app. Let's figure that out.
So you need to press Larry on Donald Trump, because when I say I think you and I mean
roughly the same thing.
When I say that Larry has made me more comfortable with the idea of a President Trump, I mean only this.
I've decided I won't move to New Zealand immediately.
I'll see how the first six months go.
Yeah.
Like I feel like – yeah, I know.
I mean – well, but I think it's looking like that. So I just hope that it simmers – he simmers down a little bit.
That's all I mean. I don't even mean changing his specific policies because the specific policies are kind of all right. I understand them. I understand his tax plan. I understand that. I understand even his repatriation of the corporate overseas money.
I even get that. I don't get – I do not understand a trade war with China and I do not understand
this – bomb them and take their oil. I think that's a profoundly stupid, stupid, stupid thing
to say and he should know better and if he doesn't oh, well. Obviously, we'll be talking about this for the next three months.
We won't. And we've decided great issues of the day.
And also we have an action item coming out of this podcast.
You know, the executive here that I did. I do have an MBA.
Not that I've ever been forgetting. You have you have questions.
You have an assignment. You have to come back.
Answers from Larry after lunch at the Four Seasons. And we'll see you next week.
That's a hard job for me to fulfill, but I will do it. Peter, this is kind of fun, just you and me. Next week?
Give my love to Manhattan. Just to remind you, this podcast is brought to you by the great courses, Casper Mattresses and Harry Shave. We thank them for their support.
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Make it a to-do item for today.
Please do it.
And we'll see you in the comments, everyone.
And I'll talk to you next week, Peter.
Adios.
Next week.
Take care.
Take a look at my girlfriend. to you next week, Peter. Adios. Next week. Take care.
See the girls in California. I'm hoping it's going to see America. I see the girls in California.
I'm hoping it's going to come true.
But there's not a lot I can do.
Could we have breakfast for breakfast?
Mommy dear, mommy dear.
They gotta have them in Texas.
Cause everyone's a millionaire. Ricochet. Well, there's nothing better to do
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