On Friday’s Battleground State Report with Steve Gill, Michael Patrick Leahy, and Doug Kellett – a one hour radio show from Star News Digital Media in the early stages of a national weekend syndication roll-out. The three hosts discussed the current Democratic climate suggesting a third party candidates possibility of becoming part of the 2020 Presidential race.
Towards the end of the show, the men contemplated how current Independent contender, Howard Schultz would play out and where and how he could strategize for a win through the battleground states.
Gill: What is the impact of a third party candidate like Schultz on congressional races? Again he’s not going to run a slate. So you know are you going to see a backlash against the Bernie Sanders and the Ocascio-Cortez’as and the Pelosi’s and others. I mean you’ve got some of these Democrats trying to run away from the extremist left wing policies. You’ve got a Democrat woman member of Congress this week make it clear that, “I am for capitalism!” I mean, you’ve got this division of policy that the Democrats are going to be eating each other alive in their primary. If that swings more votes and Republican’s keep control of the Senate take control back of the House. Then again if it gets thrown to the Congress, Trumps still President.
Leahy: Yeah.
Kellett: Yeah that’s true. That’s true. How do you pronounce this mayor of south bend, everybody just calls him Mayor Pete because nobody knows how to pronounce his last name I think. But I saw a story this week that the millenials are all fired up about him. He’s kind of like a rock star. He raise what, seven million dollars in twenty four hours kind of thing. Does that mean anything to either one of you?
Leahy: You know he’s having his moment. There was a piece I saw that said he’s thirty seven years old, he’s gay, he’s married to a gay guy. And that’s the big deal about his campaign. His dad apparently was a Marxist professor at the University of Notre Dame. And that’s sort of the background of the guy.
Kellett: Well then he’s got the resume then to win the Democrat nomination. (Leahy laughs). Is what you’re saying right?
Leahy: Exactly!
Gill: Again all of these folks are going to have their time in the spotlight and they’re going to rise and fall based upon you know today’s public opinion. This is like again, we’ve talked about the Kardashianization of American politics.
Leahy: Yeah.
Gill: This is voting on Facebook, this is American Idol. You know who get’s people to call their number that week. And it’s not necessarily going to play in the long term with voters who are concerned about jobs, national security, illegal aliens flowing across the border, healthcare. Actual legitimate issues. Not just who’s sort of the favorite brand of the week. This is also I think Shultz’s problem and some of these others. It look s easy to run for President.
Leahy: Hmmhmm.
Gill: From the outside.
Leahy: Yeah.
Gill: There are a million ways you can stumble, you can fumble, you can say something wrong, you can be tired, you can make a mistake. And all these folks when they get the spotlight on them have not necessarily played in the major leagues before.
Leahy: Yeah.
Gill: They played junior high basketball and suddenly they’re thrown in the NBA and there’s guys that are seven foot six that will just absolutely dunk over you. Schultz may be a great business man.
Leahy: Yeah.
Gill: But we’ve seen time and time again that business acumen doesn’t translate into political success. Ross Perot would be an example. There are countless others. Donald Trump is a rarity. He is literally a white unicorn on steroids.
Leahy: Exactly. Yeah.
Gill: That to be able to translate that business and visibility of the Apprentice and other skills and just be the right guy at the right time. And be able to defy gravity constantly. He is unique and just because he’s been able to do it doesn’t mean other people can.
Leahy: Not only that on the Independent side, if you look at the difficulty, just the infrastructure difficulty of getting on the ballot in all fifty states, that is a huge undertaking for an Independent.
Gill: And then again if he targets what states do I want to get on because those are one’s I might be able to win. What are the states he might be able to win?
Leahy: So where would you target? Now that’s a good strategy. Why for instance, what benefit does he get for running in California for instance?
Gill: Too expensive.
Leahy: Too expensive. And he’s not going to win it. I mean maybe he goes…
Gill: Not going to win Wyoming. So where are the states he’s got a chance to win?
Leahy: I tell you what he does. The first thing he does is he goes to BattlegroundStateNews.com and he looks at our map of the seventeen battleground states (Kellett chuckles). That’s what he does. He goes into those seventeen states.
Gill: And then overlay the marketing plans for Starbucks and figure out where do we sell the most coffee where Starbucks is the most popular.
Leahy: Exactly.
Gill: And find those particular areas.
Kellett: Yeah. I guess Washington right? Seattle (Gill laughs) I guess that would be a possibility for him maybe? I’m with you I just don’t see a constituency out there necessarily. The question would be are people clamoring for a middle. You know, John Kasich says this all the time. I think he’s now on CNN or whatever. But I don’t see a clamoring necessarily in our country right now.
Listen to the full show here:
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Tune in every Friday morning and listen to The Battleground State Report with Steve Gill, Michael Patrick Leahy, and Doug Kellett.
