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Bloodbath Postmortem - Big Picture with Jack Atherton · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: It's 7.06 at 55KRC, the talk station. Try to make
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  Speaker 1: it a happy Wednesday. I know most of my listening
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  Speaker 1: audience is not very thrilled with the outcome of the
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  Speaker 1: elections yesterday, but we'll live to fight another day. And
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  Speaker 1: I have a caller named Mississippi James who regularly talks
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  Speaker 1: about the pendulum swinging back and forth, and clearly the
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  Speaker 1: pendulum swung pretty dramatically back over to the Democrats. Here
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  Speaker 1: to give us what we're going to call the bloodbath post-mortem.
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  Speaker 1: It's that time of week.
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  Speaker 2: We get to hear bloodbath.
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  Speaker 1: Brilliant Jack Atherton in the segment we call The Big Picture.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome back, Jack Atherton, my dear friend. It's always a
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  Speaker 1: pleasure having you on my program.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me back, brother. Although just this once,
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  Speaker 2: I'd rather be sleeping.
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  Speaker 1: I know.
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  Speaker 2: As long as Rip Van Winkle, you're going to have
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  Speaker 2: experts to discuss Ohio politics, including the best callers anywhere.
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  Speaker 2: But a word about Vivek Ramaswamy, because when he announced
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  Speaker 2: that I was giddy with the chance that by cutting
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  Speaker 2: property and income taxes and attracting industry to our state,
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  Speaker 2: Ramaswamy might turn Ohio into the next Florida or at
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  Speaker 2: least Tennessee. But unlike the next governor of Florida, Byron Donalds,
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  Speaker 2: who is succeeding the next possible president of the United States,
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  Speaker 2: Ron DeSantis, the big GOP winner last night. Unlike DeSantis
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  Speaker 2: and Donalds, Ramaswamy is ran a nauseatingly negative campaign. And
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  Speaker 2: I'm not just talking about the TV ad with Amy
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  Speaker 2: Acton's abusive mother. In other ads, he's shown hundreds, maybe
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  Speaker 2: thousands of times. We saw Acton in a fetal position
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  Speaker 2: so often, I felt I was in a sonogram clinic.
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  Speaker 2: What's worse, Ramaswamy, the supposed technocrat, almost never shared his
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  Speaker 2: policy plans. He couldn't blame John Husted for negativity. since
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  Speaker 2: passing the one and only big, beautiful bill more than
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  Speaker 2: a year ago in the U.S. Senate. The Republicans there
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  Speaker 2: have done pretty much nothing. Now Republicans won't even be
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  Speaker 2: able to confirm judicial nominees, pass responsible budgets, or perhaps
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  Speaker 2: vote down a Trump impeachment conviction, depending on what some
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  Speaker 2: of the more moderate Republicans do. But moving on. As
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  Speaker 2: listeners know, we try painting the big picture here. using history.
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  Speaker 2: So I've got some thoughts on that. Yes, we know.
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  Speaker 2: We know. You just brought it up a few minutes ago.
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  Speaker 2: The party in the White House does usually suffer what
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  Speaker 2: President Obama called a shellacking when he lost the midterm overwhelmingly. Yet, folks,
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  Speaker 2: not all midterm losses are created equal. Take a couple
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  Speaker 2: of examples from recent history. Ronald Reagan's GOP got clobbered
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  Speaker 2: after he passed historic across-the-board tax cuts, but only because
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  Speaker 2: those tax cuts had not yet kicked in. When they did,
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  Speaker 2: Reagan then won an historic landslide, and Congress was flooded
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  Speaker 2: with Republicans and Reagan Democrats. Last year's Trump tax cuts
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  Speaker 2: are just beginning to kick in, from no tax on
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  Speaker 2: tips and Social Security to the reshoring manufacturing jobs from China.
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  Speaker 2: Look at this week's numbers. However, President Trump undercut his
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  Speaker 2: own momentum, not by attacking Iran's nuclear facilities, which I supported.
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  Speaker 2: I know many people in the audience didn't. I think
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  Speaker 2: he cut his momentum by refusing to conclude the war
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  Speaker 2: quickly and decisively. As I've been saying for months, go
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  Speaker 2: back and listen to the podcasts. Trump is still dithering.
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  Speaker 2: about negotiating with terrorists. At seven months of uncertainty, that
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  Speaker 2: raised gas, diesel, and fertilizer prices, pushing up inflation, interest rates,
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  Speaker 2: mortgage rates, and a general sense that average Americans, not
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  Speaker 2: tech billionaires, but average Americans like us, are falling behind.
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  Speaker 2: And Brian, here's one other midterm example. Bill Clinton in
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  Speaker 2: 1994 gave the House of Representatives to the Republicans for
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  Speaker 2: the first time in 40 years. Yet that turned out
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  Speaker 2: to be Clinton's biggest break, because after he declared, quote,
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  Speaker 2: the era of big government is over, Bill sidelined Hillary,
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  Speaker 2: whose socialist health care plan, HillaryCare, was rejected even by Democrats,
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  Speaker 2: Democrats of that day. Instead, President Clinton worked with the
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  Speaker 2: new House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, to balance the federal budget
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  Speaker 2: and reform welfare. The trouble today is, it is inconceivable,
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  Speaker 2: and unlike Vassini and the Princess Bride, I do know
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  Speaker 2: what that word means. It's inconceivable that President Donald Trump
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  Speaker 2: will be able to work the way Reagan did with
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  Speaker 2: these new Democrat socialists. What's more likely, and President Trump
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  Speaker 2: has already signaled this, is that he's going to follow
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  Speaker 2: the example of Barack Obama and try doing an end
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  Speaker 2: run around Congress by ruling through executive orders. But Obama
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  Speaker 2: called his pen and his phone. The trouble there is
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  Speaker 2: the Supreme Court, even before it had a conservative majority,
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  Speaker 2: overturned Obama, sometimes nine zip. And Obama's failures led to
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  Speaker 2: the election of Donald Trump. Brian, The new Democrat socialists
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  Speaker 2: in Washington. There are some moderate Democrat governors, but I'm
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  Speaker 2: talking about Washington. The new Democrat socialists who have no
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  Speaker 2: plans for affordability, much less affordable gas, which they want
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  Speaker 2: to outlaw. These socialists will impose gridlock so Trump gets
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  Speaker 2: the blame. Our only hope. is that the Iran war
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  Speaker 2: will end soon, preferably through a consistent, suffocating economic blockade.
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  Speaker 2: Oil prices will plummet, and the underlying strength of the
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  Speaker 2: Trump economy will help less divisive Republicans win in 2028.
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  Speaker 2: That's a reasonable hope. Meantime, though, since Ainsley and I
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  Speaker 2: worked the polls yesterday, well into the night, and then
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  Speaker 2: I had to come home to learn about this, I'm
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  Speaker 2: going to go back to sleep. and hopefully have some
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  Speaker 2: sweet dreams. What do you say, my friend?
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  Speaker 1: I agree with you. You know, today, I always hate
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  Speaker 1: waking up on election day, and I really wasn't optimistic.
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  Speaker 1: I even said it out loud on the radio the
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  Speaker 1: other day, in spite of Tom Zawistowski's convincing argument that
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  Speaker 1: it's going to be a red wave like crazy. Obviously,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not hearing from Tom this morning, but I wasn't optimistic.
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  Speaker 1: I woke up this morning early, and I just could
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  Speaker 1: not go back to sleep, even though I had some
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  Speaker 1: time on my hands to do so. Normally, I will
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  Speaker 1: roll over and enjoy the rest of my bedtime, but
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  Speaker 1: I had to get up and check the cell phone
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  Speaker 1: and the headlines. It's like, oh, Lord, there it is.
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  Speaker 1: Governor Amy Acton, Sherrod Brown wins. Greg Lansman wins. All
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  Speaker 1: of the Republican judicial races in Hamilton County were lost.
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  Speaker 1: Democrats have those seats. And it was just my heart
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  Speaker 1: just sunk. But that's the reality. We're going to have
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  Speaker 1: to live through it. And we will, of course, live
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  Speaker 1: to fight another day. I just don't think it's going
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  Speaker 1: to be a pretty outcome because, Jack, I heard the
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  Speaker 1: Democrats say, You know, evil orange man, check, no problem there.
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  Speaker 1: And obviously a lot of Republicans are upset. But also
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  Speaker 1: the argument about the affordability of gasoline and inflation, generally speaking,
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  Speaker 1: all of them promising that they're going to address it
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  Speaker 1: and that they care about it and they're concerned about it,
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  Speaker 1: but not saying anything specific about how they're going to
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  Speaker 1: deal with it. How are they going to make the
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  Speaker 1: price of gasoline more affordable? I don't know.
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  Speaker 2: They're claiming, they'll be claiming in just a few minutes
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  Speaker 2: if they haven't already started, that they won't be able
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  Speaker 2: to do anything until they win the White House in 2028.
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  Speaker 2: In the meantime, while we're still doing this post-mortem, we
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  Speaker 2: have to admit as well, and MAGA friends that I have,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm MAGA when it comes to the issues. They
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  Speaker 2: don't like to hear this, but Trump made some terrible,
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  Speaker 2: insulting personal picks in these midterms. Most egregiously, Texas Attorney
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  Speaker 2: General Ken Paxton, who had been impeached for bribery and
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  Speaker 2: other corruption in 2023 by 61 Democrats and 60 Republicans.
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  Speaker 2: It was always a mistake to call Texas red when
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  Speaker 2: all the big cities were socialist blue. You've been talking
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  Speaker 2: about this, the fact that cities in Ohio, including now
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  Speaker 2: Cincinnati and all of Hamilton County, have turned socialists. So
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  Speaker 2: we're going to have to live with the consequences.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you mentioned Texas, and I think it's also worth
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  Speaker 1: observing in just my observations that It appears that Trump
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  Speaker 1: lost the coalition of Hispanic voters that were really solidly
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  Speaker 1: in favor of him, at least substantially more than they
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  Speaker 1: had previously been. If you look at the southwest, you
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  Speaker 1: go from the southernmost tip of Texas all the way
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  Speaker 1: through over to the farthest western county. And slightly northward,
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  Speaker 1: all of it is solid blue. And it wasn't quite
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  Speaker 1: that way previously. So I think he lost the Hispanic coalition.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of commentators are observing that he lost a
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  Speaker 1: lot of the black vote, too, compared to last time.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. And by the way, a new poll that's come
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  Speaker 2: out from NBC, and you can say, well, it's NBC,
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  Speaker 2: but they turned out to be right about a lot
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  Speaker 2: of things. Trump apparently lost a lot of white men.
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  Speaker 2: When it comes to Texas and the South, we're hearing reports.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know if they're just anecdotal or what. but
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  Speaker 2: that a lot of Hispanics were concerned about the way
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  Speaker 2: that ICE has been acting, especially the way it acted
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  Speaker 2: in the first few months when we had Kristi Noem. Again,
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  Speaker 2: it's like tariffs for me. I have no problem with
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  Speaker 2: tariffs per se. if they're reciprocal and they follow established law.
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  Speaker 2: But Trump, as we've discussed in the past, was hurling
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  Speaker 2: thunderbolts and you had no idea what was going on.
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  Speaker 2: And it led, as the Iran war has led and
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  Speaker 2: as the enforcement techniques of ICE have led, to uncertainty.
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  Speaker 2: We have constant uncertainty under Trump, and that roils the
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  Speaker 2: markets and it leaves people out of work.
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  Speaker 1: It does indeed do that. And, you know, honestly, some
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  Speaker 1: of the campaign promises he made that he turned his
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  Speaker 1: back on. I mean, OK, let's. Let's look at the
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  Speaker 1: Epstein files just as one illustration. He campaigned on releasing them.
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  Speaker 1: The next thing you know, he did a complete 180.
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  Speaker 1: And a lot of people are question marking that one.
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  Speaker 1: But also, I will never be in wars. No more
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  Speaker 1: forever wars. Well, we're in one that looks like it
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  Speaker 1: may very well be a forever war. God knows how
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  Speaker 1: long it's going to last. Even if it's this battle
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  Speaker 1: of blockade attrition, we're going to have a presence and
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  Speaker 1: a large footprint there to keep the blockade in place.
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  Speaker 1: That's going to be a very costly endeavor. And The
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  Speaker 1: Iranians have made good on their promises to blow up
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  Speaker 1: American interests, most notably the billions of dollars in damage
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  Speaker 1: they've already done to our multiple military bases in the area.
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  Speaker 1: That's not going to stop.
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  Speaker 2: But Brian, talking about blowing up, I do believe, and
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  Speaker 2: the Iranians have never denied this, that Steve Witkoff was
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  Speaker 2: told by Iranian negotiators back before the February 28th bombing
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  Speaker 2: of the Iranian nuclear facilities that they had enough highly
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  Speaker 2: enriched uranium to to make 11 nuclear bombs. I didn't
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  Speaker 2: blame Trump in June of 2025 for his initial strikes.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't blame him in February. But you couldn't let
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  Speaker 2: this drag on. And that's what's still happening.
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  Speaker 1: It's out of our hands. I mean, unless we just
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  Speaker 1: walk away. I mean, I don't see how we can
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  Speaker 1: do it. I mean, militarily speaking, I keep going back
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  Speaker 1: to all the information I've gotten about our capabilities of
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  Speaker 1: actually getting down and it blowing up what remains of
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  Speaker 1: the nuclear enriched uranium or whatever's result or whatever's left
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  Speaker 1: of their nuclear program like pickaxe mountain we just don't
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  Speaker 1: have ammunition that can do it unless we want to
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  Speaker 1: go nuclear so how do we do that how do
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  Speaker 1: we are we going to put boots on the ground
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  Speaker 1: and get into one of these really bloody wars and
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  Speaker 1: it certainly would be bloody i can't see that as
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  Speaker 1: a viable option economic sanctions are working they're struggling mightily
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  Speaker 1: under the weight of their uh their own hyperinflation the
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  Speaker 1: the devaluation of their currency and lack of ability to
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  Speaker 1: sell what the only asset they really have, which is oil,
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  Speaker 1: but they're tenacious people, and they've got God on their side.
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  Speaker 1: At least they believe they do, and that's a tough, tough,
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  Speaker 1: tough hill to climb when you're not fighting a religious
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  Speaker 1: war on your side. I just don't know, Jack. I
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  Speaker 1: don't see any simple solution on this.
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  Speaker 2: There's nothing simple about it, but I wish in retrospect
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  Speaker 2: we'd enlisted more allies, that we had the use of
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  Speaker 2: the British Navy and things like that. And we are
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  Speaker 2: getting oil now out of the Strait of Hormuz. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: we are. And the Gulf is opening up also. But,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we've just been back and forth and back
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  Speaker 2: and forth. And I fear that's going to continue. It is.
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  Speaker 1: And there was just an article this morning. The Iranians
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  Speaker 1: are still using limpid mines and, you know, drones and,
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  Speaker 1: you know, small but very accurate missiles to continue strikes.
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  Speaker 1: And they have an abundance of those socked away in
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  Speaker 1: a multitude of locations. And whether or not we know
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  Speaker 1: where those are, we don't know. But we do know.
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  Speaker 1: But they can always start from scratch at the next house.
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  Speaker 1: next over. It's that easy to create those drones from
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  Speaker 1: all I've heard. It's an easy operation, unlike manufacturing Patriot missiles. Oh, Jack,
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  Speaker 1: I wish we had all the answers to all the
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  Speaker 1: problems of the world, but tomorrow is another day, is
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  Speaker 1: it not?
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  Speaker 2: Well, according to Scarlett O'Hara, yes. But as many people
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  Speaker 2: said last night, and I hope I don't get bleeped
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  Speaker 2: for this, frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
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  Speaker 1: You've got a lot to be thankful for, Jack Atherton.
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  Speaker 1: We all do. We can look past this and pray
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  Speaker 1: for a better future. Just be thankful. We can look
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  Speaker 1: around and know we were born in the United States
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  Speaker 1: of America. We still get to live here. It's still
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  Speaker 1: the greatest country in the world. And the only thing
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  Speaker 1: standing in the way of us and our ongoing greatness is, well,
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  Speaker 1: socialism and communism, Jack. Democrats are going to have to
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  Speaker 1: work that out.
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  Speaker 2: Supposedly, you know, the country has repudiated that, but they
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  Speaker 2: haven't suffered the consequences yet.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's coming. It's coming. Jack Atherton, my dear friend,
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  Speaker 1: thank you so much for your commentary every week. I'll
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  Speaker 1: look forward to next Wednesday in another edition of The
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  Speaker 1: Big Picture. Take care, my friend. Best of health and
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  Speaker 1: love to you and your better half.