Will Cain Country - Did Nikki Haley Go Woke?

Episode Date: December 6, 2023

Story 1: Where would you feel confident spending your money on college for your children? Rethinking how we rank colleges going forward.   Story 2: What’s scarier? Nikki Haley’s weakness defending Americans or Nikki Haley’s strength defending the world?   Story 3: Sharing 8 pieces of wisdom from the late, great investor Charlie Munger.     Tell Will what you thought about this podcast by emailing [e-mail]   Follow Will on Twitter: @WillCain   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

One, ranking American universities. Let's begin the process of narrowing down. Where is a worthwhile institution to spend your money on the education of your children? Two, I don't know what's scarier about Nikki Haley. her weakness in defending Americans or her strength in defending the world. Three, eight invaluable pieces of wisdom from the late Charlie Munger. It's the Will Cain podcast on Fox News Podcast. What's up?

And welcome to Wednesday. As always, I hope you will download rate and review this podcast wherever you get your audio entertainment at Apple, Spotify, or at Fox News podcast. I'll always appreciate it if you would share this podcast as we near the end. end of the year with your friends. Your recommendation is worth more. Your comment, your review, your simple passing on of the link, more valuable than any promotion or any commercial on some mass-produced website.

You can watch the Wilcane podcast on Rumble or on YouTube. Last week, America lost a near centenarian, almost 100 years old. Sage, filled with wisdom, an American leader. No, it was not Henry Kissinger. Charlie Munger was the longtime business partner and friend of one of the world's richest men. Warren Buffett, Warren Buffett of untold billions and fame out of Omaha, Nebraska, who's pioneered value investing. And whether or not Warren Buffett's politics align with mine or yours,

Warren Buffett's philosophy when it comes to investing, in my humble opinion, is intricately tied to someone who sees value in the world. It's the great logical inconsistency for me that Warren Buffett would not describe himself as a political conservative or an ideologically instinctual conservative. Everything about his investing philosophy attempts to see through reality, resist the urge of the moment, push back on the wisdom of the crowd. Zig to everyone else's, Zag. I think somehow in the process of accumulating billions and seeing how the world is quite honestly full of idiots, at least when it comes to markets, he somehow probably

developed some lack of humility, I guess, and thinking that the country's problems can also be solved with some wisdom and practicality instead of, in that case, the wisdom of the masses. Charlie Munger, though, was a conservative, at least an instinct, and I think most frequently in his voting patterns. And the less famous of the two investing duo, he was full of country wit and wisdom and nuggets to help you not through just the world of making billions, but through the world of life. And so stick around at the end of this podcast after we talk about the lack of

wisdom of presidential candidate, Nikki Haley, for eight invaluable pieces of wisdom from Charlie Munger. But first, story number one, where would you feel confident? Where would you feel comfortable? Where would you find it worthwhile to spend your money educating your children, beginning the process of ranking universities in America? on Fox and Friends this past Sunday, the president of Pepperdine University made an appearance. President Jim Gash laid out the case for why Pepperdine would lead forward in pushing an education centered around faith and an affirmation of American values. I, of course, went to Pepperdine, and I will say over the last several months and years in my life. life, I've begun to develop a professional relationship with Pepperdine. That's not to say I am

getting any type of compensation. They've just turned to me and they've asked, hey, what do you think about what we're doing and how do you think we can help share our message? I'm going to be open and honest with you. I told Pepperdine two things. I said, number one, lean into who you are, lean into your brand. Lead with faith. It's core to your authenticity. It's core to your worldview. And don't be partisan. No one needs a Republican university, but we need someone to step into this gaping vacuum in America with an affirmation of American values. Those aren't just pretty words. Here's what I mean by an affirmation of American values. It's very easy for some universities to give lip service to the defense of, for example, free speech.

And while that's important, it A puts the university on its heels. It puts the university in the position of playing defense. And B, is more often than not applied very inconsistently. Bill Ackman, the CEO of Pershing Square, a billionaire, huge Wall Street investor, one of the richest men in America, wrote a letter to the president of Harvard, his alma mater, Harvard. where he called them to task for their application of free speech, their embrace of racialism under the banner of diversity, equity, and inclusion. And their blatant discrimination against white men. Here in part is a letter he wrote to Harvard. Dear President Gay, since my letter to you of November 4th, to which you did not reply or even acknowledge, I've received substantial feedback input from senior members of the

Harvard faculty about a number of issues I raised in my letter concerning free speech, anti-Semitism, and the impact of the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Harvard. I thought to share this feedback with you now, as it may inform your testimony and potential questions you may receive from Congress on Tuesday. DEI has been expanded, apparently, to include belonging into an official, Orwellian-sounding, Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Ackman went on in his letter to Harvard's President Gay. In several of your communication since October 7th,

you have emphasized Harvard's commitment to free speech as the reason why the university has continued to permit eliminationists and threatening languish on campus, a.e. calls for Intifada, suicide bombings, knifeings of Israeli citizens, and the elimination of the state of Israel from the river to the sea. You explained your tolerance for these protests on October 13th. Quote, our university embraces a commitment to free expression. That commitment extends

even to the views that many of us find objectionable, even outrageous. In my letter to you, wrote Ackman, however, I noted that the foundation for individual rights and expression, free speech rankings. That's the fire, free speech rankings. Harvard has consistently finished in the bottom quartile in each of the past four years. I note that Harvard's rankings have deteriorated each year receiving its lowest free speech rankings ever for the 2023 academic year. Last out of 254 universities with a rating of 0.00, the only university with an abysmal, quote, abysmal speech climate. Zero point zero.00. Harvard. Harvard hiding under the banner of an embrace of free speech

says it's required to in turn tolerate anti-Semitism on campus but that freedom of speech doesn't seem to be not only unequally applied it doesn't even seem to be embraced whatsoever Harvard an abysmal climate for free speech Ackman emailed texted, discussed with numerous members of the Harvard faculty and provides direct quotes on some of their feedback on the climate on campus. Here's some of that when it comes to free speech.

Quote, Harvard became a place where if you towed the party line, there was applause. If you disagree, you are drowned out. The gatekeepers of speech continue to further narrow what they deem acceptable speech. The primary problem with speech at Harvard is that if you say the wrong thing, you will be cancelled, which then leads to self-sensitorship. The result is what you actually think is not what you say, saying anything that doesn't highlight the importance of slavery and colonialism as animating forces of history is not acceptable speech. Lived experience and ideology become the dominant forces of conversation. All of the courses follow the same playbook ideology. Ideology

poses as coursework. Actman's letter calls to the mat America's in reputation top university leading all of us to ask why would we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars

on our children their future to go into an indoctrination factor that suppresses free and critical thinking and in turn free and critical speech that indoctrinates them into a racialist ideology

churning out students who in their language are sincerely, sincerely, indistinguishable from 1940s members of the Ku Klux Klan. Ackman gives you a few more quotes from faculty, this time when it comes to the ODEIB, Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Quote, it's about whiteness versus people of color.

The DEI framework prioritizes people on the oppressed side of the narrative. One senior member of the faculty shared that it is made abundantly clear they cannot hire new faculty members unless they meet ODEIB requirements. That is, the candidate has to be a woman, person of color, or have LGBTQ plus status. Straight white males are off the table. Asians and those of South Asia, i.e. India heritage are similarly disadvantaged in the process as they are deemed successful overachieving minorities. A number of the faculty bemoaned that in many cases they cannot hire the more substantially qualified person if he is white or Asian, straight male, as the proposed candidate. He has to be a woman or bi-pac person. I was told that behind closed doors. It is common to hear.

I clearly don't think this is the strongest candidate, but we can see where the train is headed. He gives one last example of a professor that was canceled. Carol K. Hauvin, an evolutionary biologist, was canceled and eventually forced to resign from Harvard because she stated that one's sex was biological and binary on Fox and Friends. Harvard, he goes on to say, is lost. You know, the idea of college in and of itself has been something that we've discussed here together on the Wilcane podcast as simply a poor. investment, poor ROI, poor return on investment. You spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the best case scenario, they learn how to binge drink, escape with a false date rape charge, learned that they and everything around them is racist and they might as well embrace their

shallow, intrinsic characteristics, lean into their skin color, exit with a mountain of debt, and no real world qualifications that translates into a job. They have a good time, they have fun on Saturdays, and they perhaps make good social networks that then internally lead to not just fruitful and networked lives, but richer lives. But there's got to be something better. There's got to be a new reinvention of this thing

that has so much cultural inertia. I often thought of some type of semester, at sea, or students can still have the social connections in good time, travel around the world, perform mission projects, learn a trade while on the boat, I don't know, attend welding classes while also learning a liberal arts course set of education that focuses on the values of Western civilization. The only thing you're missing when you come off of this, let's call it two-year trip, is Saturdays, college football, and I'm being real, that's a huge draw.

Huge draw. There's a reason football coaches make approaching $10 million a year. It's the biggest marketing vehicle of the university. TCU's applications explode from California to the point that it's now called Texas California University directly after TCU rises in football. Oh, about 2011. By the way, on this note of football, I am becoming increasingly more sympathetic to fans of Florida State.

The argument made against keeping Florida State out of the college football playoff in favor of Alabama was that they had lost their quarterback Jordan Travis, and they had suffered from then depressed quarterback play. And it simply would set them up for a basketball. bad final. There's just though no historical consistency through this application. In 2014, Ohio State lost their first and second string quarterback. They went on to the college football playoff to win the national championship. People point out, yeah, but they won the Big Ten championship something like 57 to 7. There's always a historical zig to the zag. There's always a caveat.

There's always an asterisk. But I would ask you this. If Alabama had lost, Jaylen Milro their starting quarterback. If he'd been injured and they had to move to their second string quarterback or even their third string quarterback yet they still beat Georgia

in the SEC championship, would Alabama have gone over Florida State? You know the answer is yes. They would have. Oh, the Florida State had poor quarterback play while going, what was it? Three and O with a backup quarterback. Stats will show you.

You can look a out pretty easy. Quarterback play from Florida State was just as good if not better than quarterback played from Michigan over that exact same time frame. And nobody even thought about debating undefeated Michigan, but they left out undefeated Florida State. By the way, Michigan engulfed in a cheating scandal, stealing signs. No doubt included in the college football playoff, but Florida State because their quarterback was injured, left out of the college football playoff. Here's the truth.

It's a boys club. it's a ranking. Maybe some of the most valuable stuff I ever did on this podcast or on the Will Cane Show on ESPN was rank brands in college football because those brand rankings are exactly the pecking order for making the college football playoff. Texas and Alabama, bigger brands than Florida State. Florida State fans probably thought they were a blue blood, one of the top brands. They now know they're not.

Oh, you're not in the third or fourth tier, but you're quite clear. Clearly now, not in the top tier. And that's not meant as an insult. I think you're all realizing that today. And it does undercut the idea that we actually have a national championship that is based upon merit. And then you can win your way in. If that's the case, explain to Florida State fans why they played the games. What was the point in going 13 and 0 if they were never going to get in and got leapt by two one lost teams?

And that undercuts my team, hook them, Texas Longhorns. but I will say there's no way that you would have taken Alabama over Texas, not when Texas beat Alabama. So I'm somewhat safe in this debate as it's Florida State versus Alabama. But let's say that Georgia had beat Alabama in the SEC championship game, and the debate had come down to Florida State versus Texas. I think I said ahead of time, and I would not have argued against Florida State should have gone ahead of Texas, four undefeated teams.

But am I sure that's what would have happened? I mean, I think we have the handwriting on the wall. They would have taken Texas over an undefeated Florida State. The long and short of it is, it's like so many things in America. It's based upon reputation and elitism. It undercuts the facade of merit. It is completely unjust that the college football playoff does not include Florida State. But back to our supposed rankings.

If you had a university that truly filled the vacuum, like Pepperdine, and on the note of sports, I had two pieces of advice. Lean into who you are, step into this vacuum. You'll be flooded with applications. I'll be parents happy to spend their money on tuition for a university that truly did affirm American values and, secondarily, invest in basketball. Students need to root for something. Primarily football, primarily Saturdays,

But in the case of Pepperdine, you don't have football. And it will never be baseball and it won't be water polo. So you might as well try to be Gonzaga and invest in basketball. But if you truly leaned in and didn't just to make the defensive case of we are a place for free speech, yes, of course. That's the execution of American values. But what we need is also the affirmation of American values. We need courses and professors teaching why this is a unique experiment in human history. We need curriculum re-centering Western civilization as a great leap forward, not this sinful step of colonialism.

We need people purely describing history. While remaining open-minded, we need someone, and I would be proud if it is, Pepperdine, to reaffirm America. we should begin to the problem with this is the minute you do this you will be immediately reduced in the U.S. News Enrolled Report in the rankings you will go down but this is the second podcast in a row I've fought talking to you through just the slightest cold I don't know if this is the new Chinese virus it's just super weak they didn't get this one right in the lab in Wuhan but I don't really I'm not I don't down or, but the minute I start talking, it's right there in the back of my voice, and I

apologize, as I'm, my eyes are watering the video version of this. But the many you do this, the many of you lean in, you're of course going to be rejected by the mainstream, by the US News and World Report. So we've got to get rid of it. We got to stop caring about whether or not you ranked 30th or 70th. We got to come up with the new ranking system. By the way, maybe that exists. I would love to hear from you. Wilcane Podcast at Fox.com. Is there a ranking system? I need to start paying attention to do.

I have a son who is a sophomore in high school. I want to start thinking about a good place to send a kid to college. I once had a conversation with a professor at Notre Dame, conservative. Used to be at Princeton about this. Hey, where can we send our kids to school? He said, well, look, Princeton of the I of ease is still pretty good. Why? Robbie George. Robbie George is a famed professor.

And around him, he can create a community. He has tenure. They can't get rid of him. can teach real, reason, logic, virtue. And so you have a port in the storm. If you can look at a faculty and see one or two professors like that, you can create a port within the storm. But the other piece of ICA is follow student bodies.

Go someplace where the student body isn't insane, like at Harvard. And honestly, largely, that's in the south. I'll tell you, like people in Texas are sending their kids now to Auburn. and to Georgia, to a lesser extent, Mississippi, in Alabama, Tennessee. And yes, I love colleges. I don't think, I don't care about rankings and reputation. I like Arkansas. I like Texas Tech.

Go someplace where there's a student body that isn't insane. And hopefully some professors who can guide you forward, because we can't just play defense, we can't just be on our heels, it can't just be protection of free speech. It needs to be swords pointed forward, learning virtue, learning faith, learning purpose, and learning the value of America. Send me your colleges that you believe fill that. I think we got to do that here, begin to put together a rankings, a new ranking that matters. Forget U.S. News & World Report of Best American Colleges.

Will Kane podcast at Fox.com. We'll be right back with more of the Will Cain podcast. I'm Janice Dean. Join me every Sunday as I focus on stories of hope and people who are truly rays of sunshine in their community and across the world. Listen and follow now at Fox Newspodcast.com. It is time to take the quiz. It's five questions in less than five minutes. We ask people on the streets of New York City to play along. Let's see how you do.

Take the quiz every day at thequiz.com. Then come back here to see how you do. Thank you for taking the quiz. Story number two, I don't know what's scarier. Nikki Haley's weakness in defending Americans or Nikki Haley's strength in defending the world. It's becoming clear that the alternative within republicanism, within the Republican Party, within conservatives

to Donald Trump is Nikki Haley. I do not think that Ron DeSantis is, going to be able to coalesce some significant percentage of the voters to represent a threat to Donald Trump. Paul Ryan gave a speech, reports filed this past week, to a group of bankers in New York City where he said they needed to rally around Nikki Haley. I was at a bar this weekend with a couple of people, self-described conservatives. We were talking about things.

They said, you know, I like Nikki Haley. I like Nikki Haley. I said, you do. He said, yeah. He said, I'm not big on her. Why? Well, I'm not big on her willingness to go to war across the world. Where would not that be?

You know, her rhetoric right after the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, her footing when it comes to Ukraine. But as I was talking about this, I could just see it wasn't breaking through. I just could see it wasn't. And then I said, accurately, I also think Nikki Haley's weak. I saw what she did during the Bubba Wallace affair. I've had a direct conversation with Nikki Haley about that on air. She apologized, said she trusted NASCAR.

She bought into the hoax that there was a noose in Bubba Wallace's garage, bought into it and accepted it as an illustration of the problems within America. It wasn't, and as a result, you create a false impression of problems in America. But she gave in because that's what everybody did during that time, and that's not what I want from a leader. I think 2020, both on COVID and on race, is a great moment to see who's weak and goes along to get along to try to save their own head or who has strength and leadership

and stands up and tells the truth. And when I said that, oh, that resonated a bit more. And as we wake up here today, there's yet another example. Nikki Haley was on CBS and she was asked, what should be done if a 12-year-old

decides they want to have a sex change? And she said, the law should stay out of it and let parents handle it. If a 12-year-old wants to have a sex change, presumably that means at a minimum hormone therapy, at a maximum surgical removal of sex organs. Nikki Haley's position is, let parents handle it. That is unacceptable.

That is disqualifying that type of weakness or morality. That view disqualifies one from being presented. President of the United States. Now, I imagine if I was sitting right here, someone who endorses Nikki Haley, it's like, oh, you know, come on, because she's a moderate. That sounds, what, forget moderate. We're not in a world anymore where we can talk about who's moderate and who's extreme, who's far right and who's far left. If we're willing to accept that chopping off kids sex organs at the age of 12 is a position of moderation, it's not. It's insanity and it's child abuse, and you wouldn't allow a parent to walk into a doctor's office and say, my child

thinks he is a paraplegic, please sever their spine. My child thinks they have one extra limb. Please cut off his arm. You wouldn't find a doctor, God, I hope, who would violate the Hippocratic Oath to do that, and you wouldn't find a society willing to embrace that. But you would find a politician if it somehow found itself in the mainstream of American, quote-unquote, moderation. You know, how can you look at Donald Trump as an example and go, he's such so far right when this is what is considered moderation? What I think this is is weakness. If I press Nikki Haley right now, if she sat down with me and I pressed her on this, my suspicion is she would fold. Within two or three questions, she would fold, she'd pivot, she changed,

not what I meant, even though I can see her exact words right here. because she doesn't have strength of conviction on these issues. And this is my concern with Nikki Haley. And Nikki, I would love it if you come on here and clarify. We'll have a very cordial conversation, but we will not have false kumbaya. This is unacceptable. This is not,

not only is this not a mark of leadership, this is a mark of a lack of leadership. And it's not the first time with Nikki Haley. I'm tired of this like, well, and I get it with Nick Haley. She's nice. She presents well. She has a nice tone of speech. I get it.

In so many superficial ways, I get like why she's going to appeal to people. And I do think she's the biggest threat. I think Nikki Haley potentially will not just be a threat to Donald Trump on the Republican ticket. I think she could be a threat on the no labels ticket. She'll be the candidate on the no labels ticket, which will split. Republican vote. But if what this, if there is a sizable contingent of, of conservatism that wants to find an alternative to Donald Trump, can you at least find one?

And I know you're going to say it's Ron DeSantis. And here's the thing with Ron, yeah, Ron DeSantis is on the right side of almost all these issues. He's just not connecting. And that's the problem. So can we find someone that connects and doesn't think it's okay for a parent? to have their child's members cut off. That's not a high bar to cross, right?

Is that that big of an ask? But she's willing to go to war in Ukraine. Don't go anywhere. More of the Will Kane podcast right after this. Fox News Audio presents Unsolved with James Patterson. Every crime tells the story, but some stories are left unfinished. Somebody knows. Real cases, real people.

Listen and follow now at foxtruecrime.com. Story number three, eight invaluable pieces of wisdom from Charlie Munger. I explained to the top of this podcast, Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's longtime business partner passed away last week at the age of 99, just short of the age of 100. He was full of great investing advice, but wit and wisdom that helped you through your life. I want to share eight pieces of those wisdom with you here. today. Number one, don't drift into self-pity because it doesn't solve any problems. Charlie Munger, quote, generally speaking, envy, resentment, revenge, and self-pity are disastrous modes of thought. Self-pity gets fairly close to paranoia and paranoia is one of the very

hardest things to reverse. You do not want to drift into self-pity. Self-pity will not improve the situation. It's great advice. self-pity, victimization. These are like sugar highs, short-term alleviation of a problem, but long-term, an addiction that just continues to pull you down. On that same note, number two, Munger. Envy is a really stupid sin because it's the only one you could never possibly have any fun at.

There's a lot of pain and no fun. Why would you want to get on that trolley? it's it's exactly right think of all the other sins there's at least something in it for you right there's some type of short-term gratification with most of the time long-term pain that's the wisdom of the bible the ten commandments that's the wisdom of sins it's understanding the long-term pain associated with short-term payoff but where is it with envy what do you get out of it it's like is it like lust like for a moment i want want what you have, but never feels good. Every other sin we could walk through you go,

oh, I kind of see the short-term upside. Envy's nothing but downside, the stupidest sin. Number two. Number three, those who keep learning will keep rising in life. I constantly see people who rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up, and boy, does that help you, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you. Just keep learning. Yeah, we talk a lot about hard work. Of course, you want to try to be well-learned, intelligent, but you get to be well-learned

by a lifelong commitment to learning. Maybe listening here, but definitely reading. Munger has made a point of saying his children made fun of him that he was a walking book, a book with two legs, always, always reading. number four at a certain point you have to suck it up and cope there's danger in just shoveling out money to people who say my life is a little harder than it used to be at a certain place you've got to say to people suck it up and cope buddy suck it in and cope it's exactly right i mean this is the whole debate helping your kids versus telling them to move on picking

them up when they scrape their knee or telling themselves to pick themselves up Giving them money versus making them make it on their own. Same thing applies to society with welfare. Of course, we need to have welfare for those of the most destitute. But after a while, that can be something that helps you sink into a hammock instead of being a springboard into the future. Number five. If you're lazy and unreliable, it doesn't matter what you're good at.

What do you want to avoid? Such an easy answer. Sloth and unreliability. If you're unreliable, it doesn't matter what your virtues are. you're going to crater immediately. Doing what you have faithfully engaged to do should be an automatic part of your conduct. You want to avoid sloth and unreliability.

Seems pretty obvious. And that's the thing he also says. Most of these things are simple. It's true. Wisdom is often simple. It's just the simple truths in life that we blind ourselves to. Number six, avoid extreme intense ideology

because it ruins your mind. Oh, this one's directly at me. Another thing I think we should be avoiding is extremely intense ideology because it cabbages up one's mind. When you're young, it's easy to drift into loyalties. And when you announce that you're a loyal member and you start shouting the Orthodox ideology out, what you're doing is pounding it in, pounding it in. And you're gradually ruining your mind. You know, I think it, I mean, I have never, ever in my adult life been open to,

considering myself in any way a liberal. I've had moments where I've been libertarian. I've been more conservative. I have been more skeptical on the issue of faith now leaning in and understanding the importance of faith. I have been more ideologically stringent and now a little more populist. It's like public empathy, populist and understanding and policy. So I'd like to think I haven't been trapped, never have gone so far. But look, on trade, on the American middle class, I mean, these are issues that I don't think you can say I've moved further right on. I'm just using me as a placeholder here.

And I think, by the way, I think most of conservatism are the right, the Republican Party. I don't think it has, I don't think it's guilty of cementing itself into its own ideology. In fact, when people say it's become a cult of personality around Donald Trump, what they're saying is it has moved away from ideology or in some case, principle. And that's the point. You're going to have to balance principles without, as Munger says, cabaging up one's mind. Number seven, go to bed smarter than when you woke up. You heard that earlier.

Keep it a life of learning. And number eight, remember that reputation and integrity are your most valuable assets and can be lost in a heartbeat. Hard to gain. Integrity and a good reputation. Easy to lose. There's eight invaluable pieces of wisdom from the late Charlie Munger.

That's going to do it for me today here on the Will Kane podcast. I will see you again next time. Listen to ad free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcast. And Amazon Prime members, you can listen to this show, ad free on the Amazon Music app. Following Fox's initial donation to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund, our generous viewers have answered the call to action across all Fox platforms and have helped raise $7 million.

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