Speaker 1: Hey, Michael Steele podcast listeners, you're listening to Make Mine
a Double, a little segment I've put together where I
can share just a bit more of what I really
think about today's news and political crazy. So sit back,
relax enjoin me for a few SIPs of sanity, and
make mine a double. So I saw I'm outside. I'm
trying to work on my tan and that's going swimmingly,
by the way, it's really coming in nicely for the summer.
And my phone starts blowing up. I get this pain
that says Biden steps down, and I'm thinking immediately what
He's resigned the presidency? And then I read, oh, oh,
he's leaving the campaign. Wow, what a Sunday afternoon, folks.
What an incredible turn of events. Now you can say
we saw it coming. You can say it was in
the in the cards that the Democrats were playing and
dealing out week after week, as they were systematically and
in many cases, sort of slow rolling the jabs to
the man's back. But it's here, and the campaign for
the presidency on the side of the Democrats has changed profoundly.
And now what does it mean? Well, a couple of things.
One Republicans really won't know how to run against Kamala Harris.
They'll pretend they do, and they'll say some things that
make you think they do. They don't. They're not ready
for this, and Donald Trump especially isn't ready for it.
And I suspect there won't be a Trump Harris debate.
Just put a little pin in that. Two. What you're
seeing now happen with Kamala is what should have been happening,
and to the extend it did, it got cracked and
broken a little bit with Joe Biden. The establishment of
the various interest groups constituencies within the Democratic Party are
coming out in endorsing from Jim cliber and the Black Caucus, Unions,
the Hispanic Caucus, other members of the Democratic Party are
making it known where they stand. That's good for her.
It's good for her for a number of reasons. One,
it creates early momentum that she's going to need because
she's now got to consolidate not just the base, but
the donors and the establishment around her to clean up
the crap that's been left on Al nine, ten, fifteen,
and twenty by the Democrats and going after Joe Biden.
She's now got to clean all that up so that
she can roll into the convention, working within the rules
in the process of the Democratic Party, to secure the nomination,
likely on the second ballot. I'm not that familiar with
the Democratic rules, but I think the delegates are pledged
on the first vote, So that's going to be even
though Joe Biden is not on the ballot. But unless
there's some kind of quirk and the rules that are
not familiar with, he will at least get something out
of that first round. But I don't know how that
plays out. But however it plays out, Kamla will will
not see I think, any opposition to her, So a
lot of the ugliness that could have potentially been both
the under and overtones of this Democratic Convention, she now
has the ability to negate a lot of that and
to put in place a narrative that will help her
and whoever she selects as a VP to be nominated
and create the kind of energy they're going to need
on the back end to go into the battle in September.
Historic moment, folks, and I think it serves the country well. Now,
in a ironic twist of fate, Donald Trump is too
old to run for the presidency seventy eight can barely
string a sentence together. He likes to talk about sharks
and electric batteries, and he has this fascination with Hannibal Lecter.
Don't quite know what that is, psychiatrists. Maybe you should look
into that. I don't know. But clearly, right now the
age issue has gone away for the Democrats and has
fallen squarely on the lap of the Republicans. How they
intend to talk about that will be fascinating, but we'll see.
The Other thing that's going to be interesting to watch
is the vice presidential choice. You've got some folks out
there talking about, you know, Harris Whitmer ticket. I think
in another universe that would would lend itself to some excitement.
I just don't know. I think the country still will
have to wrap its head around electing a woman president,
let alone a woman and another woman vice president. But
we'll see. And this is an upside down year, and
maybe in looking at this election and the way Kamala
prosecutes the case, there may be some attraction there for
the American people. I think there's still too much misogyny
in our electorate for that to happen. But I'm not
against it, and I think it would be fascinating to watch,
but I think in the end you will see or
she should look at a general or an admiral like
Admiral mccraven. Certainly governor of Kentucky. Brasher would be a
very interesting pick. But I think the one that I'm
kind of really falling in like with is Senator Mark Kelly.
I know his wife, Gabby. I know Mark. Gabby and
I are Rhodell Fellows together. She's an incredible woman, having
survived the attack of a gunman. They bring a lot
to the conversation. And I think Senator Kelly, being from
an astronaut, someone who served in the Senate, someone who
understands the needs at the state level, I think would
be an interesting choice. So there's a lot here, there's
a lot of speculation that's going to be happening, a
lot of people talking. But right now, folks, if you
don't have an adult beverage that you like, you better
find one quick because you're going to be needing it
over the next four months three months as this campaign unfolds.
So grab that popcorn, grabbed that adult beverage. And while
I often say make mind a double because it's too
painful to watch. This time, I'm saying make min a
double because there's something good out here to celebrate. We're
going to have a fun campaign and I'm ready for it.
M