Ricochet Podcast #73: The Devil's Advocate
Blue Yeti ·
June 17, 2011 at 3:28am
We begin this week with some more tales from the glamorous life of Rob Long. Then, Ricochet's own Troy Senik takes time off from his duties at chief wrangler on our Law Talk podcast to come by and give us his insights on Newt, Bachmann, Rick Perry's supposed run, and the rest of presidential field. We also get into Palin's non-event emails, the pluses of organic food and close out with an original Lileks composition. All that and a resigning Weiner too.
Now, a Ricochet first: an embedded podcast and links, sanitized for your protection:
- Rob's appearance on Hannity last week is no longer online, but Fox News has kept Hannity's interview of Mark Foley from the same night available. There's a lesson in there somewhere. Thanks to the miracle of embedding, you can watch Rob and Ann Coulter on Red Eye's 1,000th episode right on Ricochet.
- Joe Trippi is a long time Democratic campaign consultant whose client list reads like the roll call for the league of super villains. They include Edward Kennedy, Walter Mondale, Gary Hart, Dick Gephardt, Jerry Brown and most recently John Edwards. He was indeed the campaign manager for Howard Dean and did pioneer the raising of large amounts of money from small donors via the internet.
- Alan Stock is the afternoon host at KXNT FM/AM, talk radio outlet in Las Vegas. He used bad words on the Hannity show. Maybe that's why it's not online.
- In 2010, journalist Bill Steigerwald retraced the route John Steinbeck took in his book Travels With Charley and discovered that much of it was made up.
- Ed Shultz, the rotund host of MSNBC's cleverly titled The Ed Show, besides being a snappy dresser, also seems to have a problem with name calling. See a shrink, Ed. And then see a tailor.
- Spoiler alert: Lileks' ode to Howard Dean is waiting for you at the end of the podcast.
- We'll be doing a live chat on Ricochet with Ann Coulter on June 29th. Don't know the exact time yet, but it will be around the dinner hour on the west coast. You can get ready by buying her book Demonic and prepping your questions for her.
- Anthony Weiner resigned while we were recording the podcast this morning. Coincidence? We think not. The New York Post will surely miss him most of all.
- Ex-Ricochet member (apparently) Wim de Vriend feels that there is far too much giggling on the Steyn/Goldberg/Long podcast. Fair enough. We had a really good joke for this link, but now you'll never read it.
- Ever wonder what life would be like behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler? Listen to Dave Carter's audio essay The View From the Cab and wonder no more.
- Troy Senik has one of the toughest jobs at Ricochet: keeping the loquacious Richard Epstein on and to the point. We're doing a new podcast with him that will be announced shortly.
- Hours ago, TMZ removed the topless photo of Newt Gingrich sunning himself on a rock from their site because they could be sure it was him. Judge for yourself.
- For those of you playing the Ricochet Podcast/Classical Greek Drinking Game, do a shot: Pericles was a prominent and influential statesman, orator, and general of Athens during the city's Golden Age—specifically, the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. He also basically helped invent democracy.
- Obama's off-the-cuff joke about shovel ready "not being shovel ready" went over like a...lead shovel.
- Ricochet member EJHill just did a spec ad for Paul Ryan that was posted on The Weekly Standard. Wait a minute, why was it posted on the The Weekly Standard?
- Not only is Yuri Yarim-Agaev a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, as well as a scientist and human rights activist, he's also now a member of a very elite group: people that Peter Robinson does an impression of.
- John Fund's column on Mitt Romney in the WSJ does seem to burn Peter's "Romney is toast" comment.
- Kim Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union. A communist, he served as an NKVD and KGB operative. He wrote My Silent War: The Autobiography of a Spy which was published in 1968 and recounts his life as a double spy.
- The Daily Show did an excellent take down of the media frenzy surrounding the emails Sarah Palin wrote as governor.
- Congratulations to Ricochet member Andrew Barrett for winning the highly coveted, much envied Ricochet Podcast Mention of The Week for his post If Governor Rick Perry Runs for President.... He wins a copy of our Encounter Books pick of the week Treason of the Heart: From Thomas Paine to Kim Philby by David Pryce-Jones. We'll be in touch, Andrew.
- While Tim Pawlenty declined to go after Romney at the debate, he has now apparently taken the fight to Twitter. Way to go, tough guy.
- Ben Shapiro's piece on NRO.com Right TV: The 12 Best Conservative TV Shows was adapted from his book Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV. He'll be on the podcast in the very near future.
- James' post on the looming flavored milk crisis in L.A.'s public schools should be read by everyone who is or knows a parent.
- Organic food? Sure it tastes good, but you have to put up with a lot to buy it (shot mostly in the parking lot of the Venice Whole Foods, the official grocery store of Rob Long).
- Mexican central bank Governor Agustin Carstens is indeed a long shot candidate for the job of head on the IMF. A few weeks ago, Drudge (among others) was screaming about Hillary taking the job, but the smart money is on France's Christine Lagarde. They pretty much have to give it to a woman, don't they?
- Through a special arrangement with Lileks Worldwide Entertainment, we are able to make his smash single Yeagh! available as a free download for a limited time only. Get it today!
Music from this week's episode:
- Hallogallo by Nue!
- Yeagh! by Howard Dean and James Lileks
The direct link to this week's episode (great for mobile devices!). But be shovel ready and subscribe. Don't use iTunes? Visit our Feedburner page for a number of other subscription options.
The Ricochet Podcast is proudly sponsored by Encounter Books. This week's featured title is Treason of the Heart: From Thomas Paine to Kim Philby by David Pryce-Jones. Available in all formats at EncounterBooks.com.
- Comment (26)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (2)
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
Comments:
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #73: The Devil's Advocate
1) Blue Yet (pardon the nickname familiarity, but I feel that we're friends), is your numbers assistant also working for the Obama OMB? We have Shapiro's 10 conservative TV shows that are also 12 conservative shows according to the NRO subhead.
2) Pawlenty and Perry are indistinguishable other than personality traits. To put them in different categories is preposterous.
3) Bush=Hoover? You know, the Right is becoming positively unhinged regarding the pre-2007 economy, then on TARP, and completely re-writing history. And among the most irresponsible people on that score is Michelle Bachmann, whose performance in September 2008 was disgraceful and childishly ignorant.
Re: Ricochet Podcast #73: The Devil's Advocate
Thanks, Duane. Fixed.
Jun '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #73: The Devil's Advocate
I liked Rob's comment that Republicans should not abandon their principles to choose someone "likely to win." (Wait, isn't Rob the squish around here?) In 2004, George W was fairly weak (even if the general approval of the Iraq War had a bit of falling to do yet), and the Democrats decided to go with a candidate who could be branded a War Hero, one who had Been There, Done That, and Come Back With The Hat (for Taranto fans). His authenticity could be papered over (they thought). Kerry had many flaws as a candidate, but perhaps the worst of them was that he was picked for (percieved) qualities that the Democrats themselves did not really believe in -- they simply believed that the Great Unwashed voters would like them. Small wonder that his support was thin. So will we now get: "Mitt Romney, reporting for duty"?
May '11
Re: Ricochet Podcast #73: The Devil's Advocate
Rob cautioned against making analogies between the 2012 campaign and the 1980 campaign, but did not get into the reasoning.
To me it seems that the big difference is demographics. This is relevant to the election and to what can be done after the election.
In 1980, there was a huge reservoir of Democratic voters ripe for conversion: there were still a large number of southern white Democrats (mostly Protestant) ready to switch party allegiance; and there were a significant number of northern white Democrats (more heavily Catholic) ready to cross-over and at least remain in play while retaining Democrat allegiance.
There is no currently analogous group. Any swing will likely be at the margins. The election may be closely decided on enthusiasm/turnout rather than big swings. Between the votes of those living off government, those unredeemably ethnopolitically Democrat, and Motor Voter vote fraud, the Democrats likely have floor results of 45% of the popular vote and 35% of the Electoral College (starkly contrasting with the 1984 result).
Similarly, demographics restricts what can be done post-Obama. Reagan faced a situation where the baby boomers were still entering the workforce. There is no such high productivity reserve now.
Edited on June 18, 2011 at 9:03pmMay '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #73: The Devil's Advocate
That series of shouts, screams, shrieks, and curses you hear across the land are going up from podcast listeners when they get to the point where Rob says something to the effect it would be OK if Obama gets reelected in 2012 as long as we set the stage for the right candidate later.
Rob, the country simply cannot afford the damage another 4 years of Obama would inflict on our economy, our foreign policy, our liberty, and practically anything else that matters.
Obama governs in defiance of the will of the people (Obamacare), the law (Libya), facts and common sense (the economy). The cronies get a pass for criminal conduct (Geihtner), and a pass to the public purse (Immelt).
Skip the decaf latte next time for the regular, time to wake up.
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #73: The Devil's Advocate
James, I laughed out loud while driving across Illinois as you revealed yourself as the author of that Deanscream mix. I used that on my 7th grade social studies students during the '04 primaries as a fun current event diversion. I found the clip on a site called DeanGoesNuts.com that popped up for a few weeks. I'd say I copied at least a dozen CDs of your clip for interested students. It also brought tears of laughter to member NitWitMN & I when we listened to it during a visit in St Paul. Very rich stuff.