Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
Blue Yeti ·
Sep 9, 2010 at 2:03pm
We've got a star driven panel this week as Pat Sajak, and Jonah Goldberg join the show. It's a fascinating conversation as they talk polling and how pollsters ask the delicate questions, movie marketing, why Obama's agenda polls terribly, but he himself doesn't. Also, dogs, liberal economics, Jonah Goldberg's unintentional impression of a Cylon, the predictable (and gratuitous) Star Trek reference and much more. All this, and Ethel Merman bringing up the rear. Yes, you read that right. Listen in!
Now, a hail of bullets:
- Disney hires an outside marketing exec to help build awareness for Pirates of The Caribbean 4
- Peter Robinson has a cold
- Pat Sajak's They Think He's a Muslim? So What's Your Point? post
- Father Charles Coughlin's Wikipedia entry
- Richard Cohen's Washington Post op-ed piece: Obama's Shrinking Presidency
- Victor Davis Hanson's piece ‘Like a Dog’: The Origins of Barack Obama’s Petulance on PajamasMedia.com
- A primer on Keynesian economics
- The Sponge episode from Seinfeld
Music from this week's episode:
- Wake Up by Arcade Fire
- There's No Business Like Show Business by Ethel Merman
Direct link to this week's show or better yet, subscribe and have the show delivered automagically each week.
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May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
Many good points. Great job, guys.
Rob and Pat make an excellent point about focus groups, polling and the shortcomings of linear thinking. The most common way arguments fail is mistaken assumptions, and a common assumption is continuity.
Jonah is right that Obama tries to convert people to his side in many of his public addresses. I think this represents something else he carried over from being a communiter organizer. Community organizing is about rallying and mobilizing people who already agree with you. Obama isn't accustomed to needing his enemies (center-right voters). He doesn't spend time "persuading", as Rob says, because he's used to preaching.
Predictably, Pat had the best line of the podcast: "Obama is like a reverse whittler: he can take an intricate carving and turn it into a stick." But "the Dukes of Hazard version of the Borg" might be just as good.
James is right about Keynesian economics. Liberals will say the same thing they said about socialism after the Soviet Union: that the problem was in implementation.
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
I had always considered the possibilty of Obama running for reelection in terms of whether or not he could be reelected and if he wanted the power. But y'all are right that he might want the power in a different setting because he hates the nature of Presidency.
That said, unlike Al Gore, a post-political Obama could only terrorize Americans and not the world. I can't think of a single foreign leader who likes Obama... which doesn't bode well for our foreign relations.
Peter, you did wonderful for someone with a cold. And you're absolutely right about how Obama perceives America.
Edited on Sep 9, 2010 at 8:46pmSep '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
Bertolt Brecht:
"The Solution"
After the uprising on June 17th the Secretary of the Writers Union had flyers distributed in Stalin Way that said that the People had frivolously thrown away the Government's Confidence and that they could only regain it through Redoubled Work. But wouldn't it be simpler if the Government simply dissolved the People and elected another?
Also, hey Long! I cross my 7's. Gotta problem with that??? ;)
Edited on Sep 9, 2010 at 5:13pmSep '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
Couldn't agree more with the identification of (faux)liberals belief in intentionality in politics/economics. I've thought that it comes from the class of word manipulators/literary critics who seem to think that life is but a novel; one must simply intend to do something, and it is accomplished.
It took running a business and an engineering education to break me of the foolish way of think. Getting what you want out of the physical world with all its uncertainty/constraints is really terribly hard enough without having the parasitic lawyer/politician ready to pounce whether you succeed or fail.
Taking Karl Marx out of context and perhaps badly quoting, "Men make their own history, but not just as they please." His modern (perhaps unintentional*) adherents would do well to keep that in mind.
*collectivism and its envious basis long predate Herr Marx. the West would have done well to have remembered that in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union. Those who won that struggle seemed to drop their intellectual guard, forgetting that new generations would have experience with neither fear of Brezhnev nor contempt for Carter.
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
I thought I was really good, though, in fairness, the others were more than adequate.
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
It's good to be the King.
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
Those are the words I craved to hear during my dating days.
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
Rob Long:
"Well, against good, common-sense advice we've decided to add a new feature to our Ricochet podcasts. We're taking callers! So let's go to, um....Harold...in Bakersfield.
Caller:
"Hey, Rob, let me just turn the radio down..."
Rob:
"We're not actually on radio, Harold..."
Caller
"No, no...I was just listening to Alex Jones while I waited. Anyway, I just wanted to say that Jonah Goldberg should be ashamed of himself..."
Rob:
"Ashamed of what, Harold?"
Caller
"Because he's a lapdog for his New York Jewish masters. The Rothensteins. Or the Bilderbugs..."
Rob:
"Uh, let's go to....Heidi...in Holyoke..."
Caller:
"Hi. I just wanted to ask that Pat Sajak character if he ever suffers any pangs of conscience for enriching himself by sexually objectifying Vanna White..."
Sajak:
"Uh, uh..."
Caller:
"Did she make the same salary you did, Sajak? Listen, buster, you aren't exactly Brad Pitt! People tuned in to see Vanna and you know it!"
Sajak
"Uh, uh..."
Peter Robinson (sotto voce):
"I told you this was a questionable idea, Rob..."
Rob:
"Well, looks like we're out of time! Join us next week!"
Sajak
"Uh, uh..."
Edited on Sep 9, 2010 at 7:14pmJun '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
Aaron Miller James is right about Keynesian economics. Liberals will say the same thing they said about socialism after the Soviet Union: that the problem was in implementation. · Sep 9 at 4:57pm
Dr. Thomas Sowell makes similar points about liberals (or are they calling themselves progressives now... so hard to keep track which one is unpopular and which one is being used). If you believe in a political messiah, as most liberals do, and in the unconstrained view that human nature can be changed and manipulated to correct all social ills, as many liberals do, then you will always blame failure on faulty leadership. If only Stalin hadn't ruined his perfect chance.... ahhhh maybe next time.
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
My podcast cuts off at 52:04 with Jonah mid-sentence. Is it some kind of flaw at my end? Did anyone else experience this?
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
It only happened to you, Trace.
Because they were having a private conversation about you.
I have the entire thing. And as a friend, I, uh, really don't think you need to hear it.
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
And while I'm dumping on Yeti -- you guys should know the Stitcher teaser references James Goldberg.
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
Trace - You should re-download the episode, sounds like your download got interrupted. We'll look into the Stitcher typo. Not sure where that is coming from.
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
I subscribe to 4 podcasts on iTunes.
Ricochet is the only one of the four that faultlessly downloads every time.
And it downloads complete. Others, like Glenn Beck, download in segments, which is a total pain when I'm listening on my water-proof iPod gear while swimming laps.
Just a tip of the hat...
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
Can I volunteer to be part of the podcast focus group? Oh please, please, please pick me. Oo! Pick me! Pick me!
Kenneth
It only happened to you, Trace.
Because they were having a private conversation about you.
I have the entire thing. And as a friend, I, uh, really don't think you need to hear it. · Sep 9 at 8:47pm
Oh, that was you they were talking about after 52:04, Trace...
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
FeliciaB: Can I volunteer to be part of the podcast focus group? Oh please, please, please pick me. Oo! Pick me! Pick me!
Kenneth
It only happened to you, Trace.
Because they were having a private conversation about you.
I have the entire thing. And as a friend, I, uh, really don't think you need to hear it. · Sep 9 at 8:47pm
Oh, that was you they were talking about after 52:04, Trace... · Sep 9 at 10:58pm
Clueless, self-involved, out-of-touch, thin-skinned -- that's me! Can I be president next?
Aug '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
Regarding Jonah's point that Republicans taking the House will be enough to reassure Wall Street, if only it were so.
The only remaining big item on the Obama to-do list is cap and trade, which would indeed be both expensive and distortionary. Since Democrats from coal states are against this, it seems like a Republican house would easily be able to stop this. However you have to remember that the EPA and Pelosi are playing good cop/bad cop. The EPA is threatening to enact an even more severe version of cap and trade on its own authority and the only way to stop them is to: a) amend the Clean Air Act (which Democrats would only support if it came with legislative cap and trade) or b) get the courts to stop the EPA (which they are not inclined to do).
So there's a plausible scenario under which even a Republican majority in the house wouldn't stop a ruinous economic agenda because it would be enacted administratively.
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
I am very curious as to whether the Street already has baked in the Republicans taking back the House. If anyone has an informed opinion on this I would love to hear it. I am guessing it's not already in the stocks which means that stocks should act well if this becomes more obvious. If both the House and Senate turn -- it will be an IPO December.
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
Best. Show. Yet.
Damn, I love this place.
Aug '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #33: The King of Ricochet
Great podcast as always, for a bunch of predominately white males.
Edited on Sep 11, 2010 at 4:11pm