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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk SEDB. Follow
this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Rep Okay there, and welcome to the rewrap for Wednesday.
All the best, but's from the micsting Breakfast on Newstalk
ZEDB in a sillier package. I am Glenn Hart, and
today it's a one topic Wednesday, and it's it's a
weird one because a lot of election coverage US election coverage,
(00:46):
even though nothing actually happened during our show really other
than in Georgia, in somewhere called Peach County, someone plugged
in a space eater and took the entire voting system offline.
But other than that, things seem to be going all right,
and there was no real news other than everybody went
out and voted.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
And yet today this entire podcast will be about that.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Three four to two twenty seven that was a final
score in twenty sixteen. The only reason I mentioned that
is because I stood at the Javit Center in downtown
Manhattan until well into the early hours of the morning
after election Day, and Hillary had refused to come out
to concede. If that happens when it's not even close
tonight might be an even bigger mess. A landslide either
way would be helpful for various reasons, because if it's not,
(01:32):
social media will explode and lawyers will make lifetime's worth
of income in the avalanche of legal proceedings that will
ensue in many respects. The way America votes is a
reflection on the state of the race we have seen.
It is a pitiful mess for such a large, influential,
and wealthy country. The Democrats have the most to lose
because they are the incumbents, and generally the incumbents get
a second crack, while they did when times were more
(01:53):
normal than they are at the moment. Trump dismissed after
one shambolic term, Harris lined up to try and prevent
two one termers in a row as a plan. Someone
should be held accountable for that. I mean, think about it.
Harris is there because she's a woman in one of colour.
That was the Biden thinking. The thinking on Biden was
he was the only one they had that had a
chance to stop Trump, and he did. But once he
(02:16):
did that, then what no one seemed to know. Did
they really think he could pull that trick off for
a second time? In twenty twenty four, and if he couldn't,
was Harris really the rock star they needed to carry
the torch? In many respects, the fact that this is
close is a disgrace. Trump, having been ounsted once, should
not even be in the race. The fact he is
is a sign of just what a force of nature
(02:36):
he is, and what a pitiful collection of no hope
as the Democrats are. If Trump wins, be as amazed
or furious or worried as you like, but it will
be one of the greatest victories in modern democracy anywhere
he has been unrelenting. If Harris wins, it's a sigh
of relief, a scramble across the line. They should be
bolting home. They have the Senate and the presidency, and
(02:57):
they're up against a croc. How do you make a
tight race? And yet here we are, and how long
we are here arguing depends on just how close it
is tonight, tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
YEP, or the next day or the next day.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
A terrible PTSD that I saw Brad Reffensburger, the Secretary
of State and Georgia who's in charge of the voting there,
doing a press conference today trying to explain how a
space heater took the voting system offline. He was actually
there to reassure everybody that the bomb threats people that
(03:34):
were seeing weren't real, that they were from Russia.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
But yeah, Raferensburger is still there. How can he still
be there? I remember him from last time round.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Coming out day after day trying to explain why they
still didn't have a result in Georgia.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Oh well, rewrap, Yeah, they're voting. It's a weird old thing,
isn't it.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
The voting All other things I like about America's two
things I like about America. One happens today and that
is in comparison to New Zealand. That is that when
you vote, you can speak, and you're a candidate, you
go vote, everybody watches you, and you've actually got something
to say.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
This election should be over. This spend all this money
on machines, and frankly, if they'd use paper ballots, who
would be over by ten o'clock. And by the way,
the paper ballots would cost eight percent. It would be
eight percent of the cost. If they would use paper ballots,
voter ID proof of citizenship and one day voting, it
(04:27):
would all be over by ten o'clock in the evening.
It's crazy. They use these very expensive computers, and I'm
hearing in Pennsylvania they won't to have an answer till
two work three days from now.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
That's not true. Paper ballots are cumbersome and slow, as
was demonstrated as I watched yesterday in Arizona. As they
open up the envelope and they pull out two pieces
of paper, they have to check that both pieces of
paper are the appropriate pieces of paper, because one of
the pieces of papers for the president, the other one isn't.
And if there are two paper ones versus two paper twos,
(05:00):
they've got to do something about that. They then, if
both pieces of paper are correct, they then pass it
on to the tabulators.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
So and that's assuming that they haven't been set on fire,
of course, exactly.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
So he's full of it. Anyway, he said this was
his last political campaign. Somebody says this is the last
political campaign. I thought he'd already said that he won't
be running again. He said, I would think so. He
thought the election had been fair so far. If I
lose an election, if it's a fair election, it'll be
the first to acknowledge that. But then again, what's a
fair election for goodness sake, Then we come to the
business of freebies, and I got momentarily excited because it's
(05:31):
I legal. The other thing I like about America, by
the way, is not just that you can speak on
election day. This ridiculous law rule that we have in
this country whereby all the early voters go out in
the midst of a debate in a campaign, and then
suddenly on Saturday you can't talk to anybody. It's so stupid.
And the other thing they do in America, I like
(05:51):
I've said many many times before, if you're a dura
in a court case, you're allowed to speak. We should
do both things similarly here anyway, it's legal to reward
people for voting or paying people to register for vote,
which brings, of course Elon Musk into the equation. But
thereof ifering rideshare deals. Today Uber and Lyft will take
you to the polling booth for half price, which.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Is nice, but it is odd that like.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
They're voting for one president, for one Senate, for one
House of Representatives, and they do it a different way
in different states.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
I had i ah rewrapped, so yes, I mentioned the
Senate and the House what's going to happen there? Do
you reckon?
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Right?
Speaker 4 (06:40):
The Senate in particular, thirty four seats are up for grabs,
all four hundred and thirty five, by the way, and
the House are up for grabs. The general consensus, the
Republicans have a very good chance of flipping the Senate.
That's why I keep asking you about it, because it's
not just the presidency. If you go back to Obama
twenty ten, so he wins in Owake, he's got it all,
he's got the trifactory that he's got the congres he's
(07:00):
got it all. And then the mid terms come along,
he starts to lose one, and by twenty twelve when
he gets his second term, he's lost both. So he's
a lame duck president. So it's one thing to win
the president, and see, you don't want to be a
lame duck president. So if they flip the Senate and
Harris wins, she's got real trouble. Bit of Trump wins
and they flip the Senate, that's the trifector. So thirty
four seats up for the election in the Senate, including
(07:21):
nineteen held by the Dems, four held by the Democratic
leaning Independence eleven held by the Republicans. Twenty six of
those races include incumbents who are trying to hold on
to what they've got. Eight are open seats, so currently
it's forty nine to forty seven, which makes it slightly
weird because the Republicans have more than Democrats, But it's
the independence that cause the trouble in that particular part
of the world. As regards the House, two hundred and
(07:43):
twenty of the four hundred and thirty five Democrats have
got two hundred and twelve three seats are currently vacant.
Forty nine seats are open election, so that'll be interesting
to watch. So there's much much, much more to play
for today than just the presidency itself.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
So you're all clear on that now, you're totally know
how many more times do we have to go through
this with you before you understand it, or indeed before
anybody in the United States understands it's a rerap Really,
it's an election where you're voting for or against Trump,
and whatever Harris is doing is it's almost irrelevant.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
What does Mike think of Trump at the end of
the day.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Really, see, if you forget the politics for just a moment.
A trait of Trump I actually admire, is this unrelenting
persistence and unwavering belief in a contest no one can
confidently call based on fact as opposed to feels or
gut or hope. I think I can very confidently say
if Biden had stayed in it wouldn't even be close
age for age. Just the site of Trump's stampeding across
(08:44):
the landscape and the way he does would have left
Biden gasping. Trump out campaigned Clinton ten years ago, he
might well do the same thing in twenty twenty four.
Biden was the antidote and it worked. But they never
thought past that. And this will be a soul searching
exercise as to why not later tonight if things don't
go well for Harris. The sad bit about Trump for
me is he isn't actually very good. He doesn't represent
(09:05):
high office well, which doesn't mean he can't win obviously,
or Ine'd win twice. There's a combination of luck and
genius in his recipe. I think he got lucky he
faced Clinton, a Washington insider with a pile of shabby baggage.
He got lucky he faced Biden, who was so bad
they ejected him for another insider. Not so much with
baggage this time, just nothing your average American can get
(09:25):
their head around. What I can't work out is whether
it's luck or genius he's been able to become impervious
to scandal. Forget the fringe nutters and what they say.
The simple truth is he is a convicted felon. He
is a grubby, loud mouth with no sophistication, just a
wannabe desperation for high office and power. Not that he
wasn't a half decent president.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Too.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Many of the liberals who hate him forget all of that.
The world didn't end between twenty sixteen and twenty twenty.
He's a conservative. On economics, the economy was fine, if
not healthy. He's an isolationist, which suits a lot of Americans.
Fine America first resonates. My international high point for his
success was NATO. He embarrassed a record number of countries
into paying their way. That is solid leadership. I dislike,
(10:09):
though as dishonesty. It wasn't the greatest economy as he claims.
He wasn't the greatest president. It wasn't the cleanest air
and the purest water. Essentially, he's full of bullshit, but
a lot of the BS is show and the liberals
won't see it. He doesn't want the media shot literally.
It's not literal. You can't take him literally. Why can't
they see that? That's why so many of them will
(10:31):
combust if he wins. They have no sense of humor
or at least of the absurd, which is what this
race has been. I mean, I ask you, this is
the biggest story today, Trump winning or the Democrats not
being able to win, Because if you want a gut
call from me, I think that's how it's going to
play out.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
The fine line between just peddling a whole lot of
out and out lies and making a joke, isn't there?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Oh, a America joke's on you.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Haha. We'll see you back here again to borrow, probably
not with a result, who knows.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Mm hmm. For more from News Talk st B, listen
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