From CenterClip: Money Can't Buy Passion

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Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Is it just me? Or havewe all lost our minds? It's a
question I've been asking myself on repeatfor the last eight years, and I
know I'm not alone in that.Is it the politics, is it the
culture? Or am I just gettingold? Hi? I'm Jennifer Horn and
I'm a former Republican strategist and partyleader turned independent sanity activist. I decided

(00:25):
to do this podcast so we couldexplore these questions. I'll bring experts to
the table from politics and media andculture. We'll have raw, insightful conversations
with the clear goal of getting tothe bottom of it all. One way
or another. We've all lost ourminds, and I hope you'll join us
on the journey to find them again. Hi, this is Jennifer Horn.

(00:47):
I'm center Clevin, coming into touchbase with you again about the Republican primary
for president. Seems to be halfof what I talk about. Are more
here? Seems to be about that. I guess it is the news of
the day in most days, andwhat we've learned in the last couple of
days is that the Koch brothers havedecided to put their money and their influence

(01:11):
and their operations their networks that theyhave built over the past decade in most
of the states across the country behindNikki Haaley for president, to become the
GOP nominee and ultimately hopefully, youknow, from their perspective, become President
of the United States. And thequestion is can they with that money and
that network and that influence essentially bythe White House, because on her own

(01:38):
so far, while Nikki has clearlymade progress after each debate, she's gone
climbed a little higher of the polls, and Desantas has you know, fallen
further and further behind, and youknow, she has been able to push
herself through a pretty hard working campaign, i'll say, into fighting for second
place in New Hampshire right now.And so can the Cochs buy New Hampshire

(02:04):
for Nikki Hally because she has towin in New Hampshire in order to go
forward with any sort of strength orat least come into where it feels like
it's neck and neck, and asof right now, without the Poke support,
that's just not going to happen.So with their support, can it
happened? Yes, it can happen. Do I think it will happen?
Right now? My gut still saysprobably not. When the Cokes have been

(02:27):
successful in using their money to winraces, it has been primarily in state
races they had been targeting over theyears, state houses where they can influence
with less money in smaller bites policystate by state by state. But one
of the reasons they've been successful it'snot just because of the money and their

(02:51):
ability that they've proven to build kindof a grassroots network, but it's also
because they have put those efforts behindissues that people are passionate about that they
can target in individual states, issuesthat have been important in one state or
another, usually wallet issues, youknow, pocketbook issues, but do issues

(03:13):
that have a direct impact on thevoters in a particular state. And so
the question becomes, can they buildthat sort of passion for Nikki Haley.
What's not going to happen is theKoch Brothers can't just go into a state
and pull all the activist phone numbersthat they've built, the list that they

(03:34):
built over the decade in say andcall them and say, hey, we're
with Nikki Haley. We want youto be with her too, and then
expect to have people come out andvote for her. Because the reason that
people got involved in the efforts ofthe Cooke brothers. Americans for prosperity is
not because of the Koch brothers,It's because of the issue. So they

(03:54):
have to be able to convince thesepeople that Nikki Haley is as important,
as worthwhile, as worth the investmentand the passion that whatever issues they've worked
on in the past have been forthat individual. I think that's going to
be really hard to do. Thepassion for you Republican base voters is still

(04:18):
behind Donald Trump, So what canthe money do that will convince them that
Nikki Haley is a good replacement forDonald Trump. So so far, I
have not seen an argument that hascome from Nikki Hally or any other candidate
that has been able to move enoughRepublican voters to get them to shift their

(04:43):
passion to someone else. Even thosethat are supporting another candidate are not doing
so passionately. The number of peoplesay they absolutely positively are going to vote
for Nikki Healley, DeSantis, Christy, whatever it is, is very,
very very low. The number ofpeople who have that passionate commitment to Donald

(05:04):
Trump still remains very high. Sothe question becomes, how do they instigate
passion and you can't do that withjust money. Thanks for listening. This
is Jennifer Horne on Center Club.