cleveland_or_bust

This week on the Ricochet Podcast, it’s early in the cycle, but regardless, we call on The Washington Examiner’s Michael Barone and Ricochet’s own Paul Rahe, two of the most experienced voices on the political scene to help us parse 2016, some Congressional races, and the mayoral contest in the Second City. Also, the President tips one for Likud, the best cup of Joe on the planet, and which podcast host is buying an Apple Watch? The answer may surprise you.

Music from this week’s episode:

Black Coffee In Bed by Squeeze

The opening sequence for the Ricochet Podcast was composed and produced by James Lileks.

Cleveland rocks, EJHill?

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There are 30 comments.

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  1. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    Yes. It. Does.

    • #1
  2. user_51254 Member
    user_51254
    @BereketKelile

    I’m listening to the podcast now and I heard Rob reference the Bibi ad. I guess another member and I had posted the ad but I thought I’d post a link to my post here. It’s a great ad.

    • #2
  3. Grendel Member
    Grendel
    @Grendel

    That’s Vol. 6 Number 4.

    • #3
  4. Hartmann von Aue Member
    Hartmann von Aue
    @HartmannvonAue

    The pseudo-ruined segue was the second-best part of my afternoon. The rest of the podcast was terrific- you three seemed energetic and engaging, as befitting the Greatest Site on Earth (r) !

    Yes, Rob, you’re crazy if you think Hilary is going anywhere but a retirement home.

    “…some tension between the White House and Camp Clinton…” oh, no kidding!

    • #4
  5. George Savage Member
    George Savage
    @GeorgeSavage

    Kudos to the lads for an excellent podcast.  I was smiling throughout as I listened during an evening run in the warm California sunshine, which is astonishing when one considers that the topics included the seeming inevitability of a nuclear-armed Iran somewhere in our future.

    • #5
  6. Ricochet Inactive
    Ricochet
    @Tsarmeister

    My wife and I did the touristy things in Seattle last summer. We stood in lines all day one Saturday for doughnuts, chowder, roasted nuts, and more doughnuts. The line for the original Starbucks (Store #301, 1912 Pike Place) was always around the block. I came back by myself at 8:30 Tuesday morning and walked right up to the counter for my overpriced, over cooked drip brew, no room. May not help (G)Nat, but earlier is better.

    • #6
  7. Dick from Brooklyn Thatcher
    Dick from Brooklyn
    @DickfromBrooklyn

    Please “like” this comment if you agree that we and the RNC should NEVER STOP using the epithet “Gentry Liberal” to describe rich liberals who are sufficiently insulated from their damaging politics.

    • #7
  8. Rightfromthestart Coolidge
    Rightfromthestart
    @Rightfromthestart

    Sounds like James has the same problem I do that when trying to make a point clearly and precisely it comes off sounding .. intense…and people tell you to calm down , your blood pressure , etc when in fact you’re not particularly excited at all. My adult daughter tells me that people do the same thing to her.

    • #8
  9. user_18586 Thatcher
    user_18586
    @DanHanson

    I am outraged!

    Everyone knows Tim Horton’s makes the best coffee.   They also sell food that won’t give you a coronary when you eat it.

    I hate Starbucks.  The coffee is bitter, and if you try to order a muffin or other snack with it,  you generally get some gooey thing dripping with butter and sugar.

    Every morning I get a Tim Horton’s coffee and a fresh muffin on my way to work.   It’s around $3.50 for the combo.   The coffee has about 50 calories (“Regular”, or one cream, one sugar).  The muffin is a standard light, fluffy muffin.  About 300 calories, as I recall.

    The equivalent at Starbucks is twice the price and more like 700 calories.

    If you get a chance to try a Tim Horton’s,  you’ll  see the difference.

    • #9
  10. JimGoneWild Coolidge
    JimGoneWild
    @JimGoneWild

    Top 10 Podcast.

    • #10
  11. Peter Robinson Contributor
    Peter Robinson
    @PeterRobinson

    Dan Hanson:I am outraged!

    Everyone knows Tim Horton’s makes the best coffee. They also sell food that won’t give you a coronary when you eat it.

    I hate Starbucks. The coffee is bitter, and if you try to order a muffin or other snack with it, you generally get some gooey thing dripping with butter and sugar.

    Every morning I get a Tim Horton’s coffee and a fresh muffin on my way to work. It’s around $3.50 for the combo. The coffee has about 50 calories (“Regular”, or one cream, one sugar). The muffin is a standard light, fluffy muffin. About 300 calories, as I recall.

    The equivalent at Starbucks is twice the price and more like 700 calories.

    If you get a chance to try a Tim Horton’s, you’ll see the difference.

    Where is this coffee heaven?  Are there any in Northern California?

    • #11
  12. user_18586 Thatcher
    user_18586
    @DanHanson

    Tim Horton’s is a Canadian chain that has expanded into the U.S, but I believe it’s mainly in the northeast. The chain was recently purchased by Burger King, so I imagine they’ll be expanding to more locations.

    If you visit Canada, just throw a rock in a random direction and you’ll probably hit one. They are everywhere here.

    • #12
  13. user_199279 Coolidge
    user_199279
    @ChrisCampion

    I was introduced to Tim Horton’s a few years ago while dating a woman in Montreal (I live in Vermont, but I’m moving to North Carolina next week).  Great stuff, solid coffee and snacks, and no one is going to offer an opinion about race relations or Quebec secession while you cough up your 3 bucks.

    Some are open later, too.  The roads are long and lonely between Montreal and VT border.  :-)

    • #13
  14. user_1001260 Coolidge
    user_1001260
    @FreschFisch

    James, I LOVE it when the “clipboard” folks come by my St Paul Highland Park home! My wife makes sure that she finds me and I get to speak with them no matter if I’m in the shower or changing oil on the van, she knows I want to speak with these folks.

    Some, I can tell are intimidated by the NRA sticker on my porch window, and some are extra fired up because they see the NRA sticker and take it as a challenge.

    I wish MORE of them would come to my home.

    • #14
  15. user_1001260 Coolidge
    user_1001260
    @FreschFisch

    I rarely stop by coffee shops because I don’t want to wait in line behind the foo-foo coffee people. Black, strong, fresh coffee is all I need.  But when I do stop by my local leftist coffee joint, I make sure I’m wearing a Ruger/Berettta/NRA ball cap or tee shirt.

    • #15
  16. J Flei Inactive
    J Flei
    @Solon

    To be honest, I turned this episode off when they got into 2016 candidates.  I really can’t stand talking about the presidential race over a year ahead of time.  It’s a shame, because this is one of my favorite podcasts, and Paul Rahe is one of my favorite guests.  I especially start to get an allergic reaction when we have to talk about Jeb Bush.

    • #16
  17. Blue Yeti Admin
    Blue Yeti
    @BlueYeti

    J Flei:To be honest, I turned this episode off when they got into 2016 candidates. I really can’t stand talking about the presidential race over a year ahead of time. It’s a shame, because this is one of my favorite podcasts, and Paul Rahe is one of my favorite guests. I especially start to get an allergic reaction when we have to talk about Jeb Bush.

    Only about ten minutes was spent on 2016. You also don’t want to miss the last third of the show after Paul and Michael’s segment.

    • #17
  18. J Flei Inactive
    J Flei
    @Solon

    Blue Yeti:

    J Flei:To be honest, I turned this episode off when they got into 2016 candidates. I really can’t stand talking about the presidential race over a year ahead of time. It’s a shame, because this is one of my favorite podcasts, and Paul Rahe is one of my favorite guests. I especially start to get an allergic reaction when we have to talk about Jeb Bush.

    Only about ten minutes was spent on 2016. You also don’t want to miss the last third of the show after Paul and Michael’s segment.

    And that’s 10 minutes too much, but OK, OK, I’ll finish it!

    By the way, I was thinking about membership:  As I see it, an important aspect of modern American politics is that smart, honest supposedly liberal people might actually agree with conservatives on a lot of issues, but they have been convinced that conservatives are basically dumb.  It’s actually easy to watch Fox News and come to this conclusion; but it is impossible to read Ricochet and come to this conclusion.  I  think Ricochet would be a great way to open up people’s minds who don’t consider themselves on the right.

    The question would be to find a way to identify these open-minded left-leaning folks and get them to participate somehow.  What if you advertised on certain left-leaning sites, something like “Want to know what actual, normal conservatives think?”  There could be a separate page for posts or discussions with people who come to Ricochet this way, and it would have to be free for them, of course.  The page could be called “Challenges to conservative positions” or something like that. The aim of this site is to have discussions, and that seems almost impossible between left and right these days.

    In a way it’s nice that most people agree with each other on Ricochet, but it would also be nice to make a point that this is not just a right-wing echo chamber, that we sincerely enjoy sharing ideas – we are just convinced that conservative ideas are better, and are willing to explain why.  I don’t know, just something I was thinking about in the car when I heard them talk about the re-join thing.  Maybe it would be a disaster.

    • #18
  19. Blue Yeti Admin
    Blue Yeti
    @BlueYeti

    @J Flei – Interesting idea that I think should be its own post. Would be interested to hear what others think of it.

    • #19
  20. Autistic License Coolidge
    Autistic License
    @AutisticLicense

    You guys gave me a new insight on Israel and the U.S. (alert: “new insights” are usually not.). All these years, Israel has behaved well, made concessions, conceded territory, and mostly to keep our good opinion. All these years, Arafat and his successors have made demands, threats, and false promises, leveraging their unreliability to gain concessions. Maybe Bibi has figured out that this relationship with the U.S. can only improve if Israel behaves badly and plays hard-to-get for a change. They’ve been taken for granted and want to change the rules.

    • #20
  21. Dick from Brooklyn Thatcher
    Dick from Brooklyn
    @DickfromBrooklyn

    Blue Yeti:@J Flei – Interesting idea that I think should be its own post. Would be interested to hear what others think of it.

    Start an exchange program with the most respectable left leaning blog you can find. Syndicate the best posts on each site and run them on the other unadulterated and without comments below.

    • #21
  22. Autistic License Coolidge
    Autistic License
    @AutisticLicense

    And now, a distasteful image. _The_Shining_. Jack Nicholson encounters a beautiful woman in a bath tub. They embrace. They kiss. He can’t believe his luck. He opens his eyes and sees…the Clinton Years! Cackling! Shuffling, shambling…toward him! He stumbles, gagging, toward the door. “You know, (gag), maybe we need a real Primary after all…It’s OK, Hillary, I’ll (gag) see myself out…”

    • #22
  23. listeningin Inactive
    listeningin
    @listeningin

    The fact that there isn’t a Starbuck’s in Ferguson is a fascination point.  It goes right in line with the whole problem, folks living in a totally different world from where our racial and poverty issues are simmering, assuming they can assess the problem and accurately judge against the people that are willing to enter mess and pouring their lives into the problems in spite of how taxing it can be (police, teachers, etc.), and then feel like they’ve done something meaningful by nagging other people to “talk about it because we wrote it on our cup.”  AND YET, and YET, they somehow dismiss themselves for the fact that they weren’t willing to risk their own financial prosperity by opening a Starbucks where that same population either won’t show up or will be troublesome to work with.  If Starbucks is serious, they should open their business in those neighborhoods, provide work for the people, create alternative products that will sell at prices they can pay, and then live with the daily struggles that come with those communities.  That is the point when they will begin to have something meaningful to say because it is only then that the complexities on the ground are understood.

    • #23
  24. profdlp Inactive
    profdlp
    @profdlp

    Maybe the new Ferguson Starbucks can also stock cigars.  They’re quite popular there, or so I hear.

    • #24
  25. Flossy Inactive
    Flossy
    @Flossy

    Another great ‘cast, guys.

    The 2016 Demolition Derby speculation segment was densely delicious.

    Michael Barone belts out some baritone political realities… and Rob squishes out the brutal reality that Hillary could win if we nominate the wrong candidate for the third time in a row.

    I tend to agree with Long and Halperin that Hillary’s primary focus is to meddle in the GOP primaries so it produces a candidate that she could crush. It’s the only way candidates like Obama and Clinton can win… and they need Bushes to do it.

    Call it the Mitt Method… or getting Romney-Rolled.

    The bottom sobering line is that this strategy is a proven winner for Democrats.

    • #25
  26. Flossy Inactive
    Flossy
    @Flossy

    It’s so good, I must pull out some quotes:

    Gem 1:

    Peter Robinson: “Okay so hold on, Ronald Reagan had executive experience – And he could move people to tears. THAT package is not available this time around… So my working theory at the moment is that between demonstrated competence vs inspirational abilities, inspirational ability may win primaries in 2016.”

    And Peter links ‘competence’ with Jeb Bush and Scott Walker… verses the ability to move and inspire people, implying Cruz or Mr Republican Revolution.

    That’s a generous use of the word competence. Scott’s a great guy, but he’s new to a lot of this stuff. That’s a pretty big leap to go from suburban Wisconsin to the Global Existential Championship in just a few short years… Even if he bravely fought off union drones to win reelection on almost an annual basis. But let’s use better metrics for judging competence this time around.

    Gem 2:

    Michael Barone: “Well, I think inspirational ability is a little overstated… I think that our conversation so far has been moving towards conclusively proving my point that none of these Republican candidates can cinch the nomination… We’ve all given good reasons why each of those we’ve talked about, and we could go down the list… blah blah blah… and why they can’t win. But somebody’s gonna win and they’re gonna surprise us by how they win because it hasn’t happened yet.”

    That’s probably the most insightful comment of the 2016 primary season thus far.

    • #26
  27. Flossy Inactive
    Flossy
    @Flossy

    Gem 3:

    Rob Long: “It’s sort of a general political question and I’m gonna reveal my bias just by asking it… What you read and hear in the citizen commentary is like: (imitating angry citizen) ‘We don’t want the Republican establishment shoving their establishment candidate down our throats!’…. Then Rob coyly asks, “When has that really happened? Is there really a Republican establishment in DC? And can it help choose a nominee?”

    Well, I guess if you take out the hundreds of millions in campaign donations, along with the vibrant political consulting and communications industry, and leave out a compliant media and an intellectual elite who are willing to avoid mentioning the obvious… then Rob is right, the GOP establishment would not be able to choose the nominee. In fact it wouldn’t even exist under such circumstances.

    For someone who has spent his career in an industry heavily influenced by Washington… that is a funny question to ask… Especially when asked by someone with the socio-political sensitivities to be the screenwriter and producer of the legendary sitcom ‘Cheers’.

    Yeah, Rob… the professional career politicians who have presided over a broken system for many decades and who get to spend trillions each year… have no ability to influence the GOP primary process.

    The GOP establishment is just a tiny little wing of the party that wields minimal sway in choosing candidates… They just get lucky almost every single time after being in power for several generations.

    And even with the leadership’s approval ratings in the tweens… they keep getting reelected because the regular folks just appreciate them so much.

    • #27
  28. Butters Inactive
    Butters
    @CommodoreBTC

    All of these conservative talking heads are dismissing Rand Paul’s chances out of hand because of foreign policy. This is a mistake.

    • #28
  29. SParker Member
    SParker
    @SParker

    Mention of the Cafe Trieste got me wondering if the New Pisa is still across the street.  Sadly no sez the internet.  Great neighborhood restaurant with sign in the same style as the Trieste and a mural of the Giants in Dante’s Inferno inside.  Owner’s first name Dante.  Can’t have been the Giants. Those would have been the Mays-McCovey-Bobby Bonds-Juan Marichal-Alvin Dark Giants.  Maybe my vengeful Dodger fan-dom has taken charge of my memory.  The waitresses told you what you were having that evening.  You:  “I’ll have the veal shanks.”  She: “No, honey, you won’t.  You’ll have Pot Roast Braised in Red Wine.”  Wonderful place.

    • #29
  30. Eeyore Member
    Eeyore
    @Eeyore

    Rob:  “We have some big plans for Ricochet. We’re really growing. We have some big plans to build it out and sort of add some more features…”

    Oh, great. You’re going to add a porte-cochère and a pool, and the foundation is still cracked and the plumbing still backs up in random places…

    • #30
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