Speaker 1: Hey, you welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck,
Speaker 1: there's Josh. Let's get it started. Yeah, let's get it started.
Speaker 1: And here got timely episode. We are rarely recording to
Speaker 1: release the next day. So I was like, hey, man,
Speaker 1: let's do something super newsy. What's something that's super newsy
Speaker 1: that's not impeachment? And uh, it turns out that the
Speaker 1: Iowa caucus is getting a little news. Yeah, just a tad.
Speaker 1: It's crazy, like we thought that we would have the
Speaker 1: results to talk about. Nope, I know because I pitched
Speaker 1: this yesterday and the day of the caucus, woke up
Speaker 1: this morning too S show and Iowa as the headline
Speaker 1: cluster f crazy. Yeah, but um, we're talking about caucuses
Speaker 1: in the Io caucus, uh, and why it's important and
Speaker 1: where it came from. We should define caucus because a
Speaker 1: lot of people think are just like, what does that
Speaker 1: even mean? Well, I mean, for good reason. It's it's weird.
Speaker 1: It's kind of an old timey thing, a relic, and
Speaker 1: that's hill still in use in Iowa. Uh, caucus that
Speaker 1: was a meeting. This is the strict definition websters to
Speaker 1: find caucus as a meeting in which local members of
Speaker 1: a political party register their preference among candidates running for office,
Speaker 1: uh or select delegates to attend to convention. Right. But
Speaker 1: the thing about a caucus is it's not like just
Speaker 1: going to vote, that's a primary. A caucus is where
Speaker 1: you are physically present in the room, like that meeting
Speaker 1: you described, and the way that you show at least
Speaker 1: as far as the Democrats caucus in Iowa, the way
Speaker 1: that you show you are planning to support or vote,
Speaker 1: most normal people would call it for a candidate is
Speaker 1: you go stand in a portion of the room that's
Speaker 1: been set aside for that candidate supporters and their names
Speaker 1: like on the wall or something like that. It's so
Speaker 1: needs to go away. Okay, that's just step one. That's
Speaker 1: my opinion, of course. But it's just so dumb. Okay,
Speaker 1: it is such a dumb way to do it. And
Speaker 1: you can tell, like I was fiercely defensive about its
Speaker 1: caucus tradition, I don't, I don't. I don't want to
Speaker 1: go on record as saying like I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's going to survive, and you know, until it is
Speaker 1: under some serious threat of not more, it's more it's
Speaker 1: more at risk than it ever has been after last night. Yeah,
Speaker 1: ironically by trying to modernize caucus. Right, So we'll get
Speaker 1: to all that. Okay, So so you go stand by
Speaker 1: your delegates name, and if enough other people who are
Speaker 1: present at that caucus go stand with you by the
Speaker 1: delegates name. That delegate is a viable candidate. Usually that
Speaker 1: means they have about or more of the room. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if your candidate that you want to go stand under
Speaker 1: a sign of in a high school gym is not
Speaker 1: considered viable, you can go join another group. You can
Speaker 1: try and recruit people, say hey, man, stand under this sign,
Speaker 1: come ye, or you can go home if you want
Speaker 1: a right, that was my candidate. Right, there's only like
Speaker 1: eight other people here standing under the Yang team sign.
Speaker 1: Yang had more than they. Yeah, of course you did.
Speaker 1: I think you're thinking of Biden. But yeah, that is
Speaker 1: how they run. The Democrats run the Iowa Caucus, Republicans
Speaker 1: and the GOP or the Republican National Convention. They they
Speaker 1: just vote like a regular old primary. Right, And like
Speaker 1: you were saying, ironically, they tried to modernize the caucus,
Speaker 1: the Iowa Caucus, and that's what caused this huge problem
Speaker 1: with an app isn't there right. Well, originally they were
Speaker 1: going to have virtual caucuses. They decided not to. The
Speaker 1: the d n C rejected Iowa's planning to have a
Speaker 1: virtual caucus where you could go online and be like,
Speaker 1: I'm standing in the yang Gang room, so I'm caucusing
Speaker 1: for yang Um. This was This was rejected by the
Speaker 1: d n C S two. They had too high of
Speaker 1: a potential to be hacked. But they still did use
Speaker 1: an app to tally these delegates and apparently it was
Speaker 1: not doing what it was supposed to do. At least
Speaker 1: this is the official line. Um. Everybody is saying, No,
Speaker 1: it's everybody from Russia to the d n C engaging
Speaker 1: all sorts of terrible stuff. Regardless, this app apparently really
Speaker 1: screwed up the caucus and in an attempt to modernize
Speaker 1: the caucus, that actually set it back, possibly drove it
Speaker 1: to extinction. Yeah, I mean, they're saying the app did
Speaker 1: not crash, and then there's other people saying the app
Speaker 1: totally crashed, So I don't know who to believe. The
Speaker 1: long and short of it is, we usually wake up
Speaker 1: on the following day of the Iowa Caucus with a
Speaker 1: decent idea of who the top three candidates are are
Speaker 1: going to be going into primary season. But we woke
Speaker 1: up this morning with no idea and I just looked
Speaker 1: on my phone. The breaking news is that in two
Speaker 1: hours from now, they will have fift of the results
Speaker 1: released by five pm Eastern. Yeah. Usually you don't even
Speaker 1: have to wait. Yeah, you wake up and you're like, okay,
Speaker 1: but no, no, I mean, like like you don't even
Speaker 1: have to go to sleep. They usually report within a
Speaker 1: couple of hours. If you're in the eastern Eastern time zone,
Speaker 1: you know, if you're in the Western time zone, you
Speaker 1: might know like you're in a cheeseburger getting all the results,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, so it's been a big embarrassment. Um,
Speaker 1: But maybe we should take a break and talk a
Speaker 1: little bit why the Iowa Caucus is important. To begin with,
Speaker 1: it's not, alright, Chuck. This is one thing that that
Speaker 1: makes the Iowa Caucus so at risk right now because
Speaker 1: of this um problem that came out of caucus. Okay,
Speaker 1: it is artificially important. The Iowa Caucus is not actually,
Speaker 1: when you dig down into it, substantially important in any
Speaker 1: real way. It is important, but it's important because the
Speaker 1: media has made it important over the years. That's right.
Speaker 1: It is. Uh, well, first of all, it is it's
Speaker 1: not the most diverse state in our union. That's one
Speaker 1: criticism of the Iowa caucus. Yeah, I saw like apparently
Speaker 1: the caucus goers were white. Yeah, largely rural bunch of
Speaker 1: white people standing around in gym. Yeah. Uh, I know,
Speaker 1: but people and I are going to be so mad
Speaker 1: at us, but it's antiquated. I'm sorry, I saw, I
Speaker 1: saw that. They're sorry, just real quick. Two things. Last night,
Speaker 1: there were at least two ties, and so to figure
Speaker 1: out how to divide dell it gets to break, a
Speaker 1: tie of coin was flipped and a name was drawn
Speaker 1: out of a hat. Wow, that's how they broke ties
Speaker 1: with the Iowa caucus last night to decide delicates for
Speaker 1: the state. Okay, I'm sorry, now that's that's unbelievable. But
Speaker 1: then again, what's more diplomatic than a coin toss? Then
Speaker 1: get any more than that? Are you ready for some football?
Speaker 1: So two, Senator George McGovern was running for president. Uh,
Speaker 1: he did a pretty good job at the Iowa Caucus
Speaker 1: and that was good for his campaign. And it was
Speaker 1: sort of the first year that the media really put
Speaker 1: a lot into this On reporting on it, and I
Speaker 1: think from like V two is sort of looked at
Speaker 1: as the watershed moment of when the media would come
Speaker 1: out the next day and start start saying things like
Speaker 1: dark horse and front runner, and the media has it's maddening,
Speaker 1: but the media has such inf elements on the way
Speaker 1: people vote, and not just by saying like here's sus
Speaker 1: person's policies. Is people saying like, oh, I don't want
Speaker 1: to vote for the dark horse, sure, and like who's
Speaker 1: the front runner? I might be interested in that person precisely.
Speaker 1: It's absolutely true. It's all fake. They can influence voting
Speaker 1: um or caucusing, not just by releasing polls, but by
Speaker 1: withholding polls. Right. So um, this nineteen seventy two is
Speaker 1: a big year. And the reason why it's because it
Speaker 1: was the first year that Iowa became the first in
Speaker 1: the nation. That's why I was sure. It's the first
Speaker 1: time that voters have any chance anywhere in the country
Speaker 1: to say, this is what I think about all these
Speaker 1: primary candidates who have been jabbering at each other the
Speaker 1: last few months. I'm gonna stand over here, We're gonna
Speaker 1: see where the rubber, right, We're gonna see where the
Speaker 1: rubber meets the road for the first time. I was
Speaker 1: the first at that and it became first for two reasons.
Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy two, the GOP decreed that you had
Speaker 1: to have you had to give thirty days notice before
Speaker 1: any kind of um, any kind of caucus or primary
Speaker 1: was held, and apparently that meant that Iowa had to
Speaker 1: move their caucus closer to the beginning of the year.
Speaker 1: And then secondly, they couldn't get a hotel for the convention,
Speaker 1: the Iowa State Convention at a time when they wanted it,
Speaker 1: so they again had to push the caucus back, so
Speaker 1: it inadvertently became the first in the nation. And they said, oh,
Speaker 1: everybody's paying attention to Iowa. All of a sudden, We're
Speaker 1: getting a disproportionate amount of interest from the national press
Speaker 1: from these candidates that are coming to town spending money
Speaker 1: um and we have influence politically because they're going to
Speaker 1: listen to us. So we're gonna make a state law
Speaker 1: that says Iowa has to be the first contest in
Speaker 1: the nation no matter what, doesn't matter what any other
Speaker 1: state does, Iowa has to figure out a way to
Speaker 1: be first, Which doesn't mean there is a some sort
Speaker 1: of federal rule that says you go first. That just
Speaker 1: means it. In Iowa, they're like, well, if New Hampshire
Speaker 1: wants to move it up a week, then we'll move
Speaker 1: it up. Yeah, it's a state law there, and New
Speaker 1: Hampshire has a state law as well that they're the
Speaker 1: first primary. That's right. That's how i was gotten away
Speaker 1: with it. There a caucus. New Hampshire is the first primary.
Speaker 1: New Hampshire is like, we vote, we don't go stand
Speaker 1: around in a gym. I saw a tweet apparently the
Speaker 1: New Hampshire Democrats tweeted to the Iowa Democrats and said,
Speaker 1: don't worry, We've got this. Really yeah, man, they So
Speaker 1: that is why the Iowa caucus became such a big deal,
Speaker 1: because their first. Because the media has an outsized influence
Speaker 1: on elections. Whether or not it matters is a matter
Speaker 1: of debate. Um. In the history of the caucuses, you've
Speaker 1: never gone on to win the nomination if you finished
Speaker 1: worse than third. But there have been cases where Bill
Speaker 1: Clinton placed third. Uh, And you know, so it's not
Speaker 1: like you gotta win Iowa. Look what happened to him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: to term or impeached. Right, we went through it all.
Speaker 1: He went through it all, the highs and the lows,
Speaker 1: the good and the bad. Right. George McGovern the first
Speaker 1: candidate in ninety two when Iowa was like the first
Speaker 1: it was big, a big deal for the first time.
Speaker 1: He came in first second, but and he got the nomination,
Speaker 1: but he didn't win the presidency, So it's not necessarily
Speaker 1: that could have an indicator. Jimmy Carter won the presidency?
Speaker 1: Did what? What place did he come in? Chuck, Well,
Speaker 1: apparently he did a really good job at Iowa, because
Speaker 1: he spent a lot of time there stumping for a year.
Speaker 1: But it says that he was actually beaten by uncommitted
Speaker 1: So the people who said that they hadn't chosen a
Speaker 1: candidate yet outnumbered anybody supporting Jimmy Carter, which makes sense.
Speaker 1: But when you just hear it like he got beaten
Speaker 1: out by uncommitted, it's even that's so Jimmy Carter. It
Speaker 1: really is. It's so nineteen seventies six Jimmy Carter, because
Speaker 1: that guy has turned into one of the greatest statesmen
Speaker 1: in living in Saints Great American history. The best thing
Speaker 1: ever is being a like at a Braves game when
Speaker 1: they showed Jimmy and Rosalin are at the game and
Speaker 1: they're like oldest dirt and they always give each other
Speaker 1: a kiss and everyone in the stadium melts. I know,
Speaker 1: it's amazing. And she's always like got She's always cheering
Speaker 1: on a hot dog or whatever, and she has to
Speaker 1: like stop and swallow before she'll give Jimmy a kiss back.
Speaker 1: It's it's their thing. The other thing about Iowa is
Speaker 1: if you don't do well there, then you might drop out,
Speaker 1: or if you do surprisingly well there, um, then you
Speaker 1: might you know, that could kick start or very much
Speaker 1: will kick start your campaign again. So now we've reached
Speaker 1: why Iowa is actually important. But again this is artificial
Speaker 1: because the media putting labels on people. So the media
Speaker 1: basically says, hey, this candidate is expected to do really well.
Speaker 1: If that candidate doesn't do well in Iowa, the media says,
Speaker 1: this is not a viable candidate. You should drop out.
Speaker 1: That actually causes funding to dry up for the campaign.
Speaker 1: I'm going to give money to someone who's not viable, right,
Speaker 1: the media said they're not viable. And then conversely, like
Speaker 1: you said, if somebody is not expected to do well
Speaker 1: and then does really well in Iowa. There can of
Speaker 1: pain can just take off. That's what happened to Obama
Speaker 1: in two thousand eight. Oh Iowa made Obama in two
Speaker 1: thousand eight, right really launched that campaign. So all of
Speaker 1: this stuff, again is just self fulfilling prophecy, which is
Speaker 1: what makes so nuts that all of the Democratic candidates
Speaker 1: spent so much time and so much money and so
Speaker 1: much effort in Iowa to get this. I saw a
Speaker 1: tweet from Glenn Greenwald actually basically laying this out to
Speaker 1: get this artificial bump, and then the artificial bump didn't come,
Speaker 1: which rendered the Iowa caucus totally unnecessary. The whole thing
Speaker 1: was unnecessary. I think they're plowing ahead to New Hampshire.
Speaker 1: A lot of the candidates were we're claiming victory and
Speaker 1: sort of backhanded ways not backhanded, but um just sort
Speaker 1: of they couldn't come out and say we won. But
Speaker 1: every single one of them were like, oh, I think
Speaker 1: we just we did very well tonight. Right, They were like,
Speaker 1: I wanna I want to congratulate my fellow nominees on
Speaker 1: coming in second. Yeah, everyone kind of claimed victory because
Speaker 1: no one could not. Everybody claimed victory. Well, some people
Speaker 1: clearly could not. The people are in that gym uncommitted. Yeah. Um, well,
Speaker 1: if you want to know more about the Iowa Caucus,
Speaker 1: you better find out about it now because it might
Speaker 1: not be around next time. Maybe not. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: I guess. Well, let's just say short, stuff appen. Stuff
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