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Capital Insights · Newsradio WGAN

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  Phil Harriman, You know, the world of politics is much like
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  the world of sports, very competitive.
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  There's there's winners, there's losers and legends that never
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  die. Coming up today, we've got the
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  Texas primary and the formerly close race between Ken Paxton
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  and John Cornyn. I suppose it could still go
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  anyway, and who knows, But the polling seems to indicate that
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  after the president endorsed Paxton that it's almost a
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  foregone conclusion. I assume you'd expect that.
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  You think that that's likely to be the outcome today?
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  Yeah, and what's surprising is that Paxton's got a little bit
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  of sort of dragging a few bags of rocks with him, politically
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  speaking, in in his role as the attorney general.
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  But apparently he has won over the president's support.
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  It will be interesting to see if not only does he win, but how
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  much of this baggage that he's carrying is going to impact the
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  general election. In in the the the Democrat who
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  won the primary over your gal, What's her name?
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  Who's your girlfriend? Down.
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  Can't remember her name. Yeah, seems to have escaped
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  Crockett. Something like that.
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  He is, he's using the the voice of God, the word of God, to
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  justify all of these liberal positions that he's taking.
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  And that's going to be a very interesting senatorial race to
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  watch, not unlike the one that we've got here in Maine, which,
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  as you know, is gathering a lot of attention around the country.
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  Yeah. Yeah.
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  So I guess before I leave Texas, do you think you mentioned the
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  baggage, right. Maybe I'll let me connect them
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  both. Does baggage matter?
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  I mean, I've, I've asked some version of that question quite a
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  bit in the last couple weeks, right?
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  Especially with the last week and Graham Plattner's latest
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  adventures in Porta potties and everything else.
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  I was thinking of this yesterday as I was reading that time
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  because I had yet to read the Times piece on him.
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  And I did read it and I was, I was going through it and in my
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  head I was swimming around trying to analyze this little
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  bit. And one of the things that came
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  to mind for me was that the weakness of his past, like the
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  the bad things, the weird things, the unexplainable things
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  is in some in some way attractive to voters these days
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  because it makes them more of a real person, right?
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  Like if you think of what people are sick of the polished perfect
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  politician who isn't really what they look like they are, you
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  know, but they're they're presenting themselves to you as
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  like an upstanding family man and a guy of great moral values
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  and all the things that they always used to do.
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  You know, so many of those people have turned into
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  scumbags. And we learned later that they
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  were just not what they said they were, that they weren't
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  real and they were fake. And we're tired of being fake.
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  So now these, you know, Pen Ken Paxton sure has his own flaws.
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  I would say Graham Plattner flaws, Donald Trump flaws, these
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  flaws make them real. And people are saying to
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  themselves, like, I don't need him to be perfect.
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  I don't need him to be clearly if he's got messed up stuff in
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  his background, I don't love that, but like he's not phony.
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  It's not he didn't actually makes him feel like a real
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  person. It I, it strikes me as these
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  things aren't going to hurt. These things aren't going to
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  hurt a lot of candidates anymore.
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  Yeah, I think that's about right.
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  And, and the, the juxtaposition that you just laid out where
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  people have presented themselves as, you know, the all American
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  US Senator and you find out they're they're doing insider
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  trading with stocks and enriching themselves regardless
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  of party affiliation. And then you have someone like
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  Platinum who's, you know, kind of blunt spoken and down, you
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  know, dirt under his fingernails, sort of aura who
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  speaks booming loud voice that kind of resonates.
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  And you say, yeah, I I'm kind of like that.
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  You know, I've made my, you know, mistakes in in my up
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  journey upward and. You know what phrase I've heard
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  a lot from people is I'm glad the Internet wasn't around when
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  I was a kid. And that's not wrong.
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  Yeah, I mean, the Internet was around when I was a teenager and
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  and into college, but no video footage of me doing anything
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  particularly bad was ever recorded by a cell phone.
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  I can say that. For sure you.
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  Know some random frat party somewhere and you know, like
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  some embarrassing incident or whatever is not really a problem
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  if you're 45 or older. Good point, but.
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  If you're younger. Yeah, well, and, and I think
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  Platinum also has carved into a, a the, the, the lost soul,
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  politically speaking, that hey, here's here's someone who can
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  stand up and speak up to the man, the institution, and he's
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  got everybody's attention. And yet, if you dig a little
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  deeper, actually a friend of mine sent me a message.
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  I shared the article with him and he he lives in Ohio and he
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  sent me back a message that says too, isn't it a shame that
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  someone who is too disabled only can qualify for AUS Senate job?
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  And you say, wow, you know, there's some truth to that, that
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  that this is someone who has, you know, a challenging, shall
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  we say, economic opportunity. And yet he's still big earning
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  the big crowds. And I think there is there is a,
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  a genuine interest in OK, we, you've got our attention.
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  We hear what you're saying. We are going to look past the,
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  the, you know, the potholes and manure piles that you've
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  created. What's your plan?
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  Are you actually going to use the power of the government to
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  control people even more than they already are?
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  Which is frankly what it appears to me is the message.
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  Do you think anybody cares what he wants to do?
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  I mean, when you're getting into personality politics like this,
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  right? It's like, who do I not like and
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  who's different from the person who I don't like or the thing
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  that I don't like? I feel like that's where it ends
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  for a lot of voters too, because I mean, it's not like anything
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  he just said is wrong about Bernie or AOC or, well, that's
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  the. Point that is the.
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  Point and they keep getting elected.
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  I mean, I granted in, you know, Vermont and, you know, a
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  district of New York, yes, I grant you, But you know, it's
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  still clearly electorally powerful, no matter how
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  ridiculous a lot of the ideology is and how illiterate it is.
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  Yeah, well, I still work. I think the the choice in Maine
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  is so clear. You have someone who has a
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  family history going back 5 or 6 generations in Aroostook County
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  who still run a small family lumber business that was started
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  by their grandfather who served in in state government, served
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  in the US Business Administration, has been a
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  senator who showed up 10,000 times to vote responsive to her
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  constituents, etcetera, etcetera.
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  Oftentimes, you know, conservative Republicans and
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  Liberal Democrats are all criticizing her, which tells me
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  she's probably right there in the middle, which is where most
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  Mainers are. Are you going to throw all that
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  track record away for someone who is just coming in like, you
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  know, the Tasmanian devil saying we got to blow the place up and
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  reinvent it? Do you see the choice
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  differently? I.
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  Don't see the choice differently, but I think that I
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  give more, I give more credits, not the right word, but I I give
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  more weight to the people saying, yes, I do want to throw
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  it away. Like, I just don't think that I
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  think a lot of people who are, who are like us, who follow
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  politics an awful lot and talk about it an awful lot and think
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  about it an awful lot cannot comprehend that anybody would
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  make the decision you just described because it just, it's
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  too rational. Like, there's too many things
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  that come from a person like that in a powerful position in
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  Washington that help out you, your family, and ever, ever
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  other people in the state, like simply by being the chairman of
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  that committee by by by itself. That's almost enough to vote for
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  somebody like that by by itself. But I don't think that 95% of
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  the people that vote think like that because they don't, first
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  of all, they don't really like analyze it to that degree
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  because it's not that interesting to them and they
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  hate it. So they hate politics so much.
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  I mean, like, what's something name something you hate?
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  Like, do you really love thinking about the thing that
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  you hate all that much? Probably not.
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  And I think most people don't like politics.
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  So, you know, well, she's on this committee and she's been
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  around a long time and demonstrated a good minute.
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  Like, that's not how they think. They think these people have
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  failed us. These people who are in charge
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  are bad and wrong. And I'm sick of them.
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  And I want somebody else. And here's this flawed dude who
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  seems to, you know, reflect some of my frustration and isn't
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  hiding from his imperfections and screw it, let's try it.
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  I think that's the if he, if he wins and she loses, that's why,
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  because people say that. I'm breathless and speechless,
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  as your president, Biden once said.
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  Yeah, I think you got it nailed. You're right.
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  So does that mean that he wins? No, have I?
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  Just convinced you he wins. No, I I think the other
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  perspective that Ioffer is, you know, the further you are away
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  from buying a new car, the better a Lamborghini looks,
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  right? But the closer you get to
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  actually writing the check, you know, maybe the Ford is going to
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  kind of fit the, the, the, you know, economics in my
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  transportation. Needs.
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  So you're saying when it's about time to write the check, you
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  realize that you're there's winters in Maine and a low rise
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  Lamborghini? It's probably not.
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  Yeah, yeah. And so I think, I think the the
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  track record of of Susan Collins and her, you know, humbleness or
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  service or responsiveness. And as you say, you don't get to
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  be the chair of the Appropriations Committee because
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  you're popular. You get to be the chair because
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  of seniority. And whether you like it or not,
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  that's how Washington works. It's not based on your
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  experience, your wisdom, your, you know, professional career
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  before you got to the, in this case, the Senate.
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  It's it's seniority. Phil Araman joining us as he
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  does anyone. I'm going to give him a chance
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  to take a sip of coffee as I ask my next question here.
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  Speaking of political races in Maine, we have an alliance that
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  has formed. I did a segment earlier on
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  ranked choice voting. And if you were a ranked choice
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  voting advocate back in like 2016, your dream, your dream
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  would have been multiple candidates in a primary saying,
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  you know, I want you to vote for me.
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  But if you don't, these two people over here, they are just
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  dynamite. You should go for one of them.
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  And that's exactly what just happened in the Democratic
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  primary. You have Hannah Pingree, you
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  have Shanna Bellows, and you have Troy Jackson, who all
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  essentially endorsed each other and said, look, vote for me.
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  But if I lose, you know, rank second and third, my two friends
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  over here, does that now guarantee, guarantee that one of
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  those 3 progressives wins the race over probably near of Shaw?
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  I, I think, I think it does. I don't think Shaw is going to
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  get through the first round with 50 plus percent and that's going
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  to make The Who you voted for second or third more influential
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  than perhaps voting for him on the 1st ballot it.
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  And unlike the Republicans, they will rank.
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  Yeah. And I don't think there's any
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  doubt. Well, you, you have convinced me
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  as much as I don't like rank choice voting, you have, you
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  have persuaded me that you got to play the game.
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  You've got to go through and rank them in order or your
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  ballot is essentially 1 and done.
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  And and so I've I've taken taken your advice, but it what I think
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  is even more interesting if you step back and say whether
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  whether it is, let's say it's Pingree Bellows or or Jackson or
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  it's Midgley Bush or Jones or. Bobby.
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  Charles Owen McCarthy, thank you.
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  There's a there's a big difference in in what we're
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  going to have for the future of Maine.
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  If you look at the the, the Bellows, Pingree, Jackson
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  Coalition, they're all insiders. They've been there for you.
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  Tell me 10 years. They say it themselves, they've
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  been around forever. So the very problems they're
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  telling us you got to elect them to fixed education results,
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  healthcare, affordable housing, energy cost, drug abuse,
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  etcetera. Well, OK, so we're going to re
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  elect you or we're going to elect you to continue the work
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  you're supposedly have done on these problems for the past 10
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  years. And they're all saying in one
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  form or another, you got to pay more in taxes and everything
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  will be different. It is kind of amusing, don't you
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  think, that as Graham Plattner makes a throw the bums out,
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  they've been around too long argument in the same party, it
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  is very likely that their nominee will end up being a
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  career politician who's been around a really long time.
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  Who, by the way, is just going to continue exactly what Mills
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  did, only on steroids. Like, you know, whatever it is
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  you liked or disliked about Janet Mills, prepare for a lot
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  more of it if one of those people were to win because they
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  would just go even deeper in that well.
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  So that status quo, you know, that's how things are going.
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  That's, you know, if that's what you want to, it's going to be
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  very interesting to see how voters react to that because in
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  one race they're going to be basically saying I want the new
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  person who has nothing to do with any of the decisions that
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  have ever been made by anybody because I'm so sick of it.
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  And then in the other, like, I like those people that have been
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  making decisions, let's vote for them.
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  Well, which which would indicate that Shaw and and King would be
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  more appealing to that line of thinking.
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  One would think, right? I mean, King's the most likely
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  one to be eliminated first, right?
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  Would you agree with him? Unless the name thing really,
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  really throws a monkey wrench into everything.
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  If he goes away, I think a lot of his votes go to Shaw.
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  I think that's a good point, yeah.
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  And if Shaw starts at like 38 or 40%?
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  Oh, you think he's that high? Well, I'm just saying if he
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  does, then then he gets to like, you know, low 40s, mid 50s or
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  mid 40s. And you know, and then even with
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  their little alliance, there's going to be people who don't pay
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  attention to the, you know, it's like, I like Shaw.
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  I'm going to put him second anyway.
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  And then maybe some of them actually do go back to maybe he
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  can still win. But if he starts at like 25, you
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  know, if you know, if he's indeed is even the the leader we
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  think he is, but you know, if he if he is and he's down in that
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  lower thing that he's doomed is absolutely doomed.
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  There's no way he's going to win with that happening.
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  You're right over there. Which just proves that rank
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  choice voting is a system meant to be games for the people who
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  already have the most. Voters.
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  And the the irony of it is, is that when you get to the
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  gubernatorial election, rank choice voting doesn't count.
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  Yeah. So they're going to get.
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  So it's actually funny enough, if you think about it, it is
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  likely to give us the most extreme version of both parties
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  because it's used in the primary and then in the general
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  election. The, you know, Rick Bennett's
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  got to be sitting there saying, well, it's pretty good for me.
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  That ends up happening, right? Shanna Bellows being the
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  nominee. Good for me, that's for sure.
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  And whatever on the right, obviously at the same time, and
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  that's the opposite of the pitch made to us for ranked chase
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  voting is that it's going to give us moderates, it's going to
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  give us reasonable people, centrist people who appeal to
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  everybody, right? It's doing the opposite, the
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  opposite you're you're empowering the progressive left
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  wing lunatics of the Democratic. So are you?
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  Suggesting we were all just rats in the political science
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  laboratory. I mean, the, the people get
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  behind these schemes to bring us, in this case, ranked choice
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  voting. They're all about how do how do
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  we manipulate human behavior? Yeah.
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  Oh, you're kidding. He didn't.
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  I am shocked that anyone would ever do that.
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  You have a state like Minnesota that had ranked choice voting,
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  or maybe it was in Minneapolis. I don't remember the city.
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  It was in the city and they got rid of it.
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  And what was the? Was it Alaska that had it?
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  Alaska still has it. They they almost got rid of it
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  by about 1/2 a percentage point. I think in the end they almost
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  got rid. Of it isn't it interesting that
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  the advocacy kids for rank choice voting have not attempted
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  to amend Maine State Constitution to bring rank
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  choice? That's the only reason we don't
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  have rank choice in the general election, because our
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  Constitution says you're elected by plurality.
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  Thank God. Yeah, but why aren't they going
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  after it? They could have.
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  They can't, right? Well.
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  They had control of the House, the Senate and the governor's
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  office, so they at least could have got it out of the
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  legislature, presumably. Although no, they still have to.
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  Do with they they have to have a 2/3?
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  You're right. You're right.
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  So they could have tried, right? They probably would have failed.
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  Yeah, We got one minute left. All right?
• 16:46
  Iran going to have a deal this week, You think?
• 16:49
  Wow. What is going on there?
• 16:51
  I, I, I, I've said on your program that President Trump put
• 16:56
  his entire political capital, all the chips of his capital, in
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  the middle of the table. And he has to come out of this
• 17:06
  with a genuine transformation of Iranian culture.
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  And I'm not seeing that happening.
• 17:14
  And if it doesn't and we have a slow walk back to normal energy
• 17:19
  transportation, the incumbent president normally loses seats.
• 17:25
  It's very common that the incumbent president loses seats
• 17:28
  in Congress at the midterms. This could be even more so.
• 17:33
  Well, that's where we're going to end because we're out of
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  time.