Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Michael Steele here. Now. I know you're waiting
for the next big episode, but in the meantime, give
a listen to this Michael Steele podcast quick Take.
Speaker 2: What up?
Speaker 1: Everybody? Welcome to this quick take on the November elections
that just happened. Yeah, all the crazy that was Tuesday.
Guess what, we got a way of breaking this down,
and we've got one of the best out here to
kind of give us her thoughts on it. And we
got a little bit of surprise because we got another
one of the best. This is a twofer. I'm loving this.
I'm a happy boy today. Happy boy. Joining us is
Maria Cardona, seasoned public policy advocate and political strategists with
more than two decades of experiencing thement, government, politics, and
public relations, and her partner because they got their own
podcasting going on. So this is why this is cross
cross branding. It's just so much fun. Uh. Is Alice Stewart,
who I've known for many years and our in our
work in the in the minds of the Republican Party.
She's an American political commentator for CNN. She's worked on
numerous Republican political campaigns and brings a wealth of experience.
So ladies, I'm just I'm so happy this.
Speaker 2: S Michael.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 1: This is good. This is so good. So Okay, what
the hell happened on Tuesday? And why are people overreacting
to it?
Speaker 2: You know, that is a very good question, So I think.
And I did a column for Real Clear Politics, uh,
with my take. Alice did a column for CNN with
her take. But I think, you know what, I end
my column with Michael, and I think that this this
is important to keep in mind is while there are
certainly lessons to be learned for Democrats in term of
what happened in the elections this past week, it's not everything, right,
So it doesn't mean nothing, but it doesn't mean everything.
And what I mean by that is everyone is talking
about the demise of the Democrats. Oh my god, what
are they going to do in the midterms? What's that forward?
And look, we have to take lessons about messaging first
and foremost for what people need, what they want out
of their leaders. Democrats were exhausted, Independence were frustrated because
both of those groups gave their votes and their confidence
to Joe Biden and the Democrats a year ago, and rightly,
so they were hoping that at this point they were
going to see big things done. Now, big things have
been done, right, the American Rescue Plan, the COVID money,
the vaccinations, all of that. But as you know, in politics, Michael,
it's what have you done for me lately? And I
feel like a lot of voters because of the pandemic
and because the economy surged, but then with the delta variant,
you know, things really just got a lot more complicated.
People are scared, they are tired of being indoors, They
are worried about their kids, you know, having to close
down schools again. All of these frustrations they took out
on the Democratic candidates, and many of the Democratic candidates,
especially Terry mcculluff, we're not able to message a positive, hopeful,
and frankly credible message to these voters. And there were
some very specific things that happened, especially in the Virginia
gubernatorial race, that are not going to happen in the midterms,
or at least we hope are not going to happen
in the midterms. The midterms are a year away. The
midterms have will have very different candidates. Glenn youngkin I
think was brilliant. And how he what I call he
danced to this pernicious two step of messaging with a
wink and a nod to Trump's base on critical race theory,
on election integrity issues, and at the same time talking
about broadly education and the economy to independence, which is
what they wanted to hear the candidates. I'm sorry, just
one last thing. I know, the candidates that are going
to be running in the mid terms, at least many
of them across the board for the House in the Senate,
are not Glenn Youngkin's. They're more like many Trumps. And
so what Democrats have to do is they have to
take a look at what their own situations are in
their own races and continue to do messages about what
Democrats are going to be doing. You know, today you
see that hopefully there's going to be a vote on
these aid bills, reconciliation and the infrastructure package, and we
need to talk about those, not calling them infrastructure bill
or reconciliation, but what will they actually do for voters.
Speaker 1: I take to heart a lot of what you said
because I think it's it's right on the money, and Alice,
you have been on the podcast before, and we've kind
of you know, sat sat in the corner so cringing
about some of the crazy going on inside our party
and trying to sort of pull it back into that
sane lane. Young Cain seem to have done that in
many respects. You know. Yeah, he did the sort of
winking nod to the Trump base, did the Heisman maneuver
with Trump himself, you know, kind of creating that distance.
But there is some value to what he did, I mean,
what he said to voters. He you know, he he
came off normal sound of mind. He had, you know,
proposals that you know, people could debate, but they were
solid proposals, like, for example, eliminating the tax on groceries,
particularly as we're now, you know, realizing the effects of
you know, the mini inflation that we're seeing that could
grow into a larger problem, uh in the first quarter
of next year. How do you how do you assess
how Youngkin positioned himself and and too to the point
about you know, what candidates are going to look like
in the primaries next year. There is some truth that
they're going to be very different looking in that regard.
So you have this everybody's about all this pathway that
young has created. But you've got a lot more Marjorie
Taylor Green's running in twenty twenty two than you have
Glenn Younkins.
Speaker 2: Great to be with you, Michael.
Speaker 3: I think the key is the key to Glenn Youngkin's
success is that he was a youngin Republican and not
a Trump Republican, and so many people in the Democratic
side tried to tie him into Trump. What he did,
I like to call call it. He took the Goldilocks
approach to Trump in terms of it wasn't too closed,
it wasn't too far. It was just the right distance
from Trump in order to keep Trump space, not poke
the bear, but also set himself aside as a candidate
who focused on policies that unite us and not the
personalities that divide us. And he focused on the policies
from day one. He was focused on jobs, the economy,
of pocketbook issues, public safety, and education. And when he's
talking about pocketbook issues, he takes it down to issues
that are of importance to Virginia voters like you say,
he's going to repeal the grocery tax on day one,
as he said, he will also suspend the gas tax
on day one. Given the supply chain crisis and increasing
gas prices that we have, he will also roll back
taxes in the state. Those are the kind of things
that people want to hear from their leaders that will
do something to impact their daily lives and kitchen table issues.
But education and parental choice was a key issue for him.
Speaker 2: From the beginning.
Speaker 3: But what happened was Terry mcculluff making I think a
fatal flaw in the debate where he said that parents
should not be involved in their child education. And he
can come out of that afterwards and say it was
taken out of context, but he said the words, and
the Youngin campaign was able to recognize the fact that
that hit a nerve with a key voting block in Virginia.
And the key voting block is not Republican, Democrat or Independent.
That voting block is parents. And when parents are told
that they are going to be sidelined in silence in
their kids' education, then that's a problem. And that got
a lot of parents involved in the Youngin campaign. And
he also did a good job of appealing to women
and appealing to African Americans and Latinos, which is a
key aspect for his victory, and those were key factors
in Younkin's success, and he managed to navigate the type
rope with Trump. He didn't ignore any voting block that
he thought was not within reach. They did very well
with independence, which is a key to their success. Those
are I think how Glenn Younkin managed to come out
on top because and he also worked really hard. He
had a huge successful bus tour at the end, and
he had momentum at the right moment, which is key.
But if I can follow up on one thing that
Maria said, and I'll hand it back. She talked about
a lot of the outside influences that impacted Terry mcculloff's race,
the dysfunction in Washington as well as the inability to
have progress. I think those are important factors. But also
there are self inflicted wounds on part of mccauluff. The
statement about parents being signed an education that I think
was one that they will always go back to as
this is where the air went out of the tires,
and also putting putting so much emphasis on Donald Trump,
Donald Trump, Donald Trump, who is not on the ticket.
He's not running and Glenn Younkin was not closely tied
with him. So I think when they do their post mortem,
they're after action item report, they're going to look at
we shouldn't have focused on Trump and we should have
walked back that education comment sooner, Maria.
Speaker 1: What Alice has put out here actually sets up very nicely. Uh.
The other twin problems that the Democrats encountered on election.
The other the first was the Minneapolis voters, I mean
soundly rejecting the idea of defunding the police. Can we
can Democrats finally put that ish to bed and move
on and create a better narrative on that front? And
two New Jersey. No one saw New Jersey coming. No,
I mean, I don't anyone out of saying, oh yeah,
I predicted New Jersey would be close. No, you didn't
just stop lines shut up because you didn't, because no
one saw the Republicans performing the way they performed in
New Jersey. Was that was that more about the national
angst that Americans have about Democrats generally, or was that
something where Republicans, you know, just had a better game
plan on the ground to turn out their vote.
Speaker 2: So let me first address the the defund the police,
which is that's that's sort of where you're getting out here.
So I hope, so, Michael, I hope that the Democrats
can just put that aside. It doesn't mean that they
have to stop talking about, you know, criminal reform, police reform. No,
we need to be talking about that, but we need
to be talking about it in a manner that actually
doesn't scare people. And that's what happened, and we actually
gave the tools to the other side to talk about
it and use it against us. We let them weaponize
that issue, and I'm hoping that we are now able
to just take that off the table. In terms of
New Jersey, you know, if you had actually talked to
people who Democrats who were on the ground in New
Jersey a couple of weeks before the election, they were saying, hey,
by the way, this is going to be a lot
closer than people think. They were saying that we just
no one was paying attention. And so, yes, that it
ended up being a surprise. But let's also remember that
both in New Jersey and in Virginia, it was always
historically from a historic standpoint, an uphill battle for Democrats
as well as you know, both in New Jersey and
in Virginia, and in Virginia. As you know, it is
normally always right the party that is out of power
that wins. Terry mccaulluffe was the only one that has
in the past been able to capture lightning in a
bottle and win that, and it was gonna be tough
for him to do that twice, no matter what. In
New Jersey, same thing. You know, a Democrat has not
been re elected for a second term in I don't
know how many decades and so again, but that doesn't excuse, right,
what happened. I agree with Alice in terms of what
happened to Terry. His fatal mistake was making a comment
about education. Though I just I have to say this
because and not to excuse it, because I think the
Youngkin campaign was brilliant in how they took that comment,
and they did take it out of context, and they
did attribute to him something that he did not say.
But Terry never walked it back. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: Context.
Speaker 2: You're absolutely right, that is that is politics. But but
you know, I will say this, you know, on the
one hand, you know sort of what Terry was trying
to say, and he's right about this is that uh,
you know, Glenn Youngkin's closing ad was that wacky woman saying,
you know, talking about banning Tony Morrison's book Beleve.
Speaker 1: Because their son was traumatized from reading Tony Morrison English
for God's sake.
Speaker 2: Exactly exactly so so so me, as a mother of two,
don't I don't want that woman anywhere near anything having
to do deciding what my kids, you know, are are
taught in school. Right, So that's that's the other side
of this. But Terry never explained it that way, right Terry.
What he said was that was that parents should not
decide what is tawn in schools, and he's right about that,
but then he didn't explain it when the issue started exploding,
right and so and so, Also, as a mother who
was very involved in her children's education, you know, my
husband and I essentially were their teachers for a year
and a half, I can understand why the Youngin campaign
took that and ran with it, because then if you
hear as a parent who has been teaching your kids
for a year and a half, the last thing you
want to hear is that this other politician doesn't want
you to be involved in your in your child's education. Right, So, again,
brilliant on their on the Youngkins campaign, behalf stupid on
the mcculluffs campaign, behalf for not having cleaned that up
immediately afterward, because if he had done that, I you know,
we might be in a different situation today.
Speaker 1: Final question, both of you and the real quick who
has the edge going into twenty twenty two. Right now,
the momentum seems to be with.
Speaker 2: I think it's with the Republicans right now, and we
and Democrats need to need to act like that is
the case, whether they think that's the case or not,
because that is going to make sure that we get
it right. Make sure that we talk about, you know,
our our wins, what we're going to be able to
do for the American people if this, you know, these
packages passed, What does that mean. If I'm a single mom,
I'm going to be able to go to work and
have my kids cared for. If I am caring for
an elderly parent, I'm going to have help with that
child tax credit, climate change, if that's your issue, you know,
all of these great things that we're going to be
able to talk about in that way in terms of
being able to do what they were elected to do.
And so we need to think Democrats need to think
that this is an uphill battle because it is right again, historically,
we are not in a good position and our margins
are razor thin. We can't we have nothing to be
able to. We don't have any buffer here, right, So
we have to get it right. And in order to
get it right, you have to be running scared.
Speaker 3: Alice are absolutely and I think it's Republicans. It's Republicans
races to lose in twenty twenty two. And I do
believe the Glenn Younkins strategy of addition is the way
to go. And I say addition in terms of politics
is the game of addition. You keep Trump's base, but
you also broaden it out to the disaffected Republicans and
the independents who were put off by the tone and
tenor of Trump. And you cannot be the Marjorie Taylor
Greens and going into this midterm and expect to come
out victorious. We learned that with the Georgia Senate races.
We lost two key Senate races because they were too
trumpet and look, I support the former president's policies, but
under his leadership, we lost the House.
Speaker 2: The Senate and the White House.
Speaker 3: And if you know, I play enough athletic sports to realize,
if you lose your zero for three, you use a
new playbook. I think the youth in Playbook was the
right strategy to do. And one other issue I just
want to point out moving forward is let's focus on
the policies. There are so many issues with the Democrats
we can point to with regard to the economy, with
a supply chain crisis, with Afghanistan, with COVID. Let's just
focus on policy and show the contrast. And I also
have another suggestion, Michael, that you may remember this was
a very successful strategy from the Republican Playbook twenty ten.
This very smart Republican named Michael Steele, who was the
chairman of the Republican Party, got on this big bus,
traveled around the country the Fire Pelosi Bus Tour and
got Republicans involved, and you said, quote, this may be
our last chance to save America. And this was in
twenty ten August of twenty ten, and that's important. We
need to remind people if we don't fire Pelosi, and
we don't fire Democrats in charge, their potential for this
progressive overhaul of government is real. So I think taking
a page from your playbook would be a good move.
Speaker 1: For republic And to that point, Alice, it's overhauled that
the American voters have said they didn't bargain for when
they elected Joe Biden. And I think that that's something
that Democrats need to focus on. What Biden knows America
can get behind. He's got nineteen Republicans who have voted
with him on infrastructure, right, pass it, sell it, talk
about it. To Maria's point, create a new narrative around
something other than defunding the police, and you know, a
sort of you know, sideways wokeism that Americans don't necessarily
want right now. They want stability in the markets, jobs
created COVID in recession, their kids back in classrooms, safe
and learning. And if you deliver that, Democrats, you can
actually probably make twenty twenty two competitives.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly right. And I think, you know, this
goes kind of goes back to the very first point
I make in my column, which is this that how
much of our losses, at least I think in Virginia,
but probably across the board as well, were the political
tectonic plates which had shifted out of position since the
election of Trump, right, simply resuming a more familiar pre
Trump position. Right to Alice's point about how you ran
right and other Republicans ran pre Trump, we were all
focused on issues. When Democrats one pre Trump, it was
on issues, and and so how much of it was
that Democrats were woefully unprepared to fight on that terrain
because we were so used to fighting everything having to
do with Trump, Right, and so we need to get
back to when you and I would go on MSNBC
and debate issues.
Speaker 1: And debate issues right, exactly.
Speaker 2: Exactly imagine that I wanted. That's what Democrats kept talking
about during the Trump era. Oh my god, remember when
we could actually focus on issues? Okay, Democrats will now
this is our opportunity and we have to go back
and get great at doing that again.
Speaker 1: So I'm the luckiest man in DC because I got
I got the twofer of Maria Cardona and Alice Stewart.
You sure to give us the breakdown on this Tuesday's elections.
So what's tell folks youre podcast because you guys are
going to be going into your own podcasts after we
finish up here. What what tell us about it.
Speaker 3: Yes, we were getting ready to record right now.
Speaker 1: It's hot.
Speaker 3: MIC's from left to right, and it's on all the
podcast platforms. And we started this when covid started. This
is because we felt there was a place a need
for respectful conversations on the issues. And as you heard,
Maria and I disagree on policy, but we have a
great love and respect for each other and have conversations
about the issues that I think are important. You know,
neither one of us expect to change the other person's mind,
but it's about broadening our own understanding of the issues,
which we think is important.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so and it's and the other thing that
is important for us, and you know, we know that
you are in this camp as well, is that you
have to have these conversations with humanity, right. That's one
of the things I think that has was sisoned out
of our politics in the last five years, and so
we want to remind people. And this is why I'm
so glad that we're able to do all of this
together because we know you agree with us on this.
You have to look at this from the lens of
we're all humans in this, We're all in this together
no matter where you are, and you have to be
able to have these conversations based on policies, not personal, right,
and so we have to continue to talk about these
things because these are issues, as we just saw, that
affect people's lives, and you have to You can't get
personal about it. You can't look and talk, you know,
across the person, but you have to talk to the person.
And so Alice and I do that on a weekly basis.
Speaker 1: Well in the space where they get to play folks
hot Mike from left to right with Maria Cardona and
Alice Stewart. Like I said, I was really lucky to
get both of you.
Speaker 2: You were lucky. Yeah, this is fine.
Speaker 1: This is a lot of fun podcast. Consider it done.
Consider it done. I'll make sure my producer talks to
your producer and we make that happen because it's a
lot of fun.
Speaker 3: Considering that the same considering it's the same person.
Speaker 1: That's right, it's gonna be easy, that's right. I'll have
my people talk to your people, who are our people.
Speaker 2: So that's right, Michael, thank you so much. This was
such a treat for us.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys. Be blessed out there, folks. Until next time,
I'll be safe. Hey everybody, thanks so much for listening today.
Please go to Apple Podcasts and give us a five
star review. That's five stars, five stars. Say it over
and over again. Or you can catch us on stitch,
your iHeart, tune in, or wherever you get your podcast on.
You know how that goes. Peace out, Catch you next time.
I'm sports psychoedist doctor Andrew Jacobs. I created the Sportsmanshipt
Foundation to promote and educate parents and at It's about
the role of good sportsmanship and our development. Learn more
at winnersulimited dot com. That's winners in limited dot com.