Making it a regular weekly thing to coax Rich into firing up some quick takes on current events. These a lot of fun.
Engage the conversation on Substack at The Common Bridge!
Making it a regular weekly thing to coax Rich into firing up some quick takes on current events. These a lot of fun.
Engage the conversation on Substack at The Common Bridge!
Welcome to the podcast, the common bridge with Richard helpy. Rich is a successful entrepreneur in the technology, health and finance space. He and his wife Leslie are also philanthropists with interest in civic and artistic endeavors, but with a primary focus on medically and educationally underserved children. My name is Brian Kruger, and from time to time I'll be the moderator and host of this podcast. Richard, I cornered you again now it's becoming a habit. I'm sure I probably should find counseling for this. Um, I had to get some quick takes from you on the election. Uh, since we talked last time. The democratic primary landscape has changed dramatically. Tell us what you think and tell us what you see coming down the pipe.
Speaker 2:W uh, well first of all, Brian, I have to admit, I'm kind of enjoying these quick takes as you call them, another show. Well, you know, something and I'm getting more feedback from people about that. Then the detailed policies, what I hear back from folks talking about the policy discussions is, Hey, I'm learning so much I never knew about this or about that. Yeah. And the commentary back on the quick takes is, wow, that was refreshing. I'm so glad someone said that. More people should hear this. I'm like, Hmm, okay. And the numbers do reflect that. So it really reinforces my sense that people are looking for a better way other than this hyper partisanship and this distorted cycles. All right. And not that rise in defense of our current president, but everyone knows today that when you see a headline coming out from CNN that has the word Trump in it automatically, okay. This is going to be spun in absolutely the worst possible light for the president. We know that's happening, right? Yep. Um, but there's been a lot of things that have occurred, um, and it's not just the Democrats, it's the Republicans too. When you break this down. So let me, let me start with, uh, in a way this was a positive, right? It started as a horrible negative, but I think it's moving toward a positive. And, and Senator Chuck Schumer, um, made what was unmistakably threatening remarks about the Supreme court justice. Yeah. Okay. And I mean, I just, it's a disgusting display of partisanship. He was blasted so hard, he walked the commentary back and I hope he can stay there. Um, but of course that he's trying to also as many, uh, others are doing, trying to take the actions of a virus and attributed the negative impacts to the press. And that's right. And, and the exaggerations and these extrapolations, um, you just can't keep up with them. It, and, and it's not doing the public any good other than undermining any confidence they might have that some really talented people that are in the employ of our federal government are know what they're doing. Um, you know, come out and they blast the leadership, the government, and then they say, well, look at CDC. Like hello CDC is part of our company. I'm going to steer you back though. Cause last week we signed a 72 hour, uh, 72 hours span. Um, um, mr Biden went from, uh, being nearly gone, uh, resources depleted. Um, he was, he was about to be an after thought, a footnote to the 2020 election. And lo and behold, uh, here he is a front runner. What did, what are your observations about that? What do you think happened? I don't think it's as much about Joe Biden is, I think it's about anti Bernie Sanders. Really that, yeah, look, Joe Biden has, uh, a long track record. It's unmistakable that he has positive attributes that he's seen as a, a nice guy. Um, he comes with so much baggage and so much attack surface. Uh, and look, it's pretty obvious that his mental acuity is not where it needs to be. Um, and if you think about how he got to this front runners status, it goes from, he jumped in and it's starts with name recognition, goes to the early primaries, doesn't do very well until all it looks like Sanders is getting ahead. And then as I sat on another one of these is like South Carolina is going to vote for a Republican in November. They pick him will all of a sudden, now Joe's our guy, he's our firewall against Bernie Sanders. And I observed the news coverage in many channels, local television stations, cable coverage, newspapers, editorial pages. All the places that I go. The conspicuous absence was the mention of Bernie Sanders, right. They just kept saying Biden, Biden, Biden. You had mentioned that earlier. Yeah, I started taking note of that. And you're right. Really pushed to the back burner really far up their neck. They're still running neck and neck for delegates. Um, that, uh, the Bernie Sanders camp has very enthusiastic, uh, voters behind them. Carolina's supporters, well supported well and voters. I've been look in South Carolina, um, they touted the black vote that went to Biden, but the black vote under 30 went to Sanders. So there's something afoot here and the Democrat establishment, which in 2016, picked a horribly flawed candidate to lose to the likes of Donald Trump. It does not appear they learn their lesson because they're now going to, uh, back a, they being the democratic national committee establishment, they want to back the ultimate establishment candidate who has got even more flaws. And the irony of a party that relies so much on identity politics that says, well, you know, we've got to free the world from old white men have manipulated their rules within a space of a couple of weeks. They changed their rules to put another old white guy, Mike Bloomberg on the debate stage and as we're bout to see a terrifically sound debate with Senator Sanders, vice president Biden and representative Gabbert, they changed the rules again, so Gabbert can't be on the stage. Opened the door for that for the old white guy closed it for the diverse, the only diversity left in there. Yes. I think it's tragic because I, I still suspect people are looking for the off ramp from president Trump and that they're looking at the, the what the Democrats are offering and they go, well that doesn't really look like it. And then what an insult to take Gabbert who has followed the process all the way through who was stiff armed in some of the debates and not allow her her time. I believe she could have picked up 20% of the boat just because of the sharp contrast in her, her demeanor, her age, her experience, her sheet up there. And she looks, she if she embodies diversity. All right. And I think people would look at that and go, you know, I'll take that off offering. And as we've talked about other people we talked about Buddha, judge Warren Klobuchar are all of them viable off-ramps to where, where we are today. And the Democrat national committee has gotten together and just blown that up and left us with two guys who I believe are older than Donald Trump. Yes. They and both carry a significant amount of baggage. A rich, I'll give you like really one better. When Biden, Biden gets elected, should he get elected the day he takes off as he will be the same age as Ronald Reagan was the day he left office. So chew on that one. That, that, that is something now to be fair, um, the last, uh, weeks have not been kind to president Trump all. He has pivoted briefly to acting presidential. Um,[inaudible] I, I don't know if you can keep it off. Um, I wouldn't bet on it. Um, that he has Trump card, no pun intended, has always been how's your 401k that they're going to cram that down his throat, how they should have it. Now the irony is that you have people cheering for economic hardship just so they can win that on, on America. So the question then comes, if come November, we are mired in a recession entirely possible if November comes and there are permanent changes based on the coronavirus the question becomes who do you trust the most to come up with the policy initiatives for the economy and for the public health of the nation. Right. I know what you think. I know what you're thinking. Go ahead. None of the above, which again comes back to my theme and the reason I'm doing these podcasts is that the partisan party politics has become so overplayed that we can't even think about the common good. And we watched in 2016 as the Republican establishment methodically wiped out 15 really good candidates. It would have been great chief executives of the nation. And we watched in 16 and now again 20 where the entrenched Democrat establishment wipe out the best alternatives and where can America go to find a president that we believe shares our values and is willing to stand above the fray and deal with the issues on a policy basis. And that's, that's it's a sad place to be. Know. I don't really know what to say.
Speaker 1:No it is. But I think in a lot of it is uh, the, the electorate's fault or maybe it's then in turn the media's fault because these candidates now have to be scrubbed so clean or, or, or uh, they have to, they have to fit in a vertical that's nearly impossible for everybody to do agree on. So like you said, we come to the end of the day, the smoke clears and we have two 70 some year old guys on the democratic side when they should have that. That should be the time when there should be a 40 or 50 year old, you know, great energetic person up there, a person of color, a female, female person of color, somebody that gets everybody to get behind and go, this is great, this is a, this is a new look and it's just a complete failure on the left to produce somebody like that. Because like I said, I think there's a lot of people want to take the off ramp on Trump, but I just don't think it's going to happen. Now. It looked the last,
Speaker 2:uh, Persian to be named in this, uh, election to be the vice president on presuming Biden gets the nomination. Um, although I think that's far from assured. Um, and, but if he gets the nomination, the last person to be named would be the vice president candidate for the Democrats. And there's been, there were a number of names thrown around, most of whom I don't think would make any sense.
Speaker 1:You mentioned a few in our last podcast where I caught you off guard and you brought up Michigan's governor Whitmer you like her and her name seems to be bouncing around a little bit.
Speaker 2:She's a very attractive candidate. Um, the single question would be, uh, is she ready? And that she's is new to the governorship. And again, I do like the way she's handling the job. Um, it makes me proud to be a Michigander. Uh, she is cut from a similar cloth as Rick Snyder. Um, Rick wasn't one to uh, take credit or fix blame. It's like, okay, what do we need to work on? Re relentless positive action was his mantra. Um, and, and governor Whitmer seems to be picking up, uh, that mantra in her own way and, and proceeding. Um, she did run a negative campaign. Um, she is not governed as a, uh, as a partisan person and you know that I think it makes her a good governor. I don't know whether she would play well, uh, as a vice president candidate. Um, for sure. Just, just given that she's only been in the job matter of months. Makes sense. Um, one that someone asked me, like, uh, you know, who have the candidates that are no longer in the running, might make good vice presidents, and I'm going to talk just about two of them. And one I think is pretty obvious and one might surprise you. So let me, the pretty obvious one would be, uh, Amy Klobuchar. And in the early debates, I mean, she was literally shaking. She was so nervous. I thought something was wrong with her. Um, but she's a really good campaigner and that's what the vice president's job often is. Um, she's a Midwesterner. Um, so she would be a great match up against my pants. Um, she would put, uh, Iowa in play as, you know, that went Republican in 16. Yeah. Uh, she would make Wisconsin hotly competitive. Um, and I think, you know, in the upper Midwest should be looked at as well. There's one of ours and you know, there's, there's some comfort there. So I think that, and I know she has some baggage and some things as they all do with the research, but, um, you know, there's a reasonable choice there. Uh, the one that might surprise you, it would be Elizabeth Warren and let me lay out the case for Elizabeth Warren. So number one, um, she's already well known. She already has a following. She's, uh, as you know, very policy oriented. Uh, there is not a big downside for her to run because if she's not successful, she's still the Senator from Massachusetts, uh, and she's still, uh, you know, can run again, uh, if she so chooses in four years. Um, I think that she might be attractive to, uh, the followers of Senator Sanders. Uh, she's viewed in many places as kind of a Sanders light and can bring some over. She could, she could bring some over. Um, and uh, it looks, she's an energetic campaigner. I think she was the smartest one on the stage for most of those debates. Oh, you know, it, look, it's a shame that the process is what the process is because a, a, I was actually looking forward to her being a nominee and debating president Trump because could dial back to earlier podcasts of yours back in, you know, last year we were, you had mentioned that you were very impressed with her as a candidate. Right. And you look what you did to Mike Bloomberg and the debate. He made him a non factor overnight. Oh, it was like a random ran into a buzzsaw. He just had no idea what to do. She just hacked him off and sent him off stage. So I think she brings a lot to the party. Um, I think she could help center the country on policy, you know, given, you know, Joe Biden's, uh, mental acuity. And again, I'm not a doctor, but I've seen enough missteps that people could look at her and go, okay, well, you know that if she becomes the president, I'm going to be okay with that. Yep. So, um, now whether she would do it again, I don't know what about the internal workings, but it'd be easier for her to say, you know, I came into this race because I wanted Donald Trump to be defeated. Um, and this is the role I'm going to play to see that end. And I think that is a understandable and believable position. Yeah, I think it's an attractive candidate to what did address, uh, the African American vote and enough, I know that Biden brings some of that with him. Um, I, I know that Bernie wasn't big with the Africa African American boat still isn't it? But you said, uh, over over 30. I wonder how, uh, how she would do with that. It's not going to hurt him. I mean, that's, you know, Biden is, is going to, uh, be strong in that demographic. Uh, and president Trump who had great numbers in the economy for a minority employment and minority, uh, household income rising, um, that looks like it's going to be thwarted by the combination of the Corona virus and the Saudi oil shocks. I mean, we're sitting here in March and you know, one argument can be November is a long way away. Uh, on the other hand, what restarts this economy and because it is an intertwined global economy, it's not policy action by one government in one part of the world that guests, the trains moving again. Um, it's got to be a lot of coordinated efforts, um, at a time when there's a lot of uncertainty. Yeah, I mean, and to that end, look, I've talked to some friends of mine who have a business interest in China and they're saying that for the large part, China's coming back online. I had heard that as well. So you guys are far more connected. But I had heard that as well. I had heard that as well. I'm talking people that actually, you know, have employees in China and are acutely aware of what's happening there day to day. Uh, yeah. W w the caution I would put is that it is still a country where frankly, the government can order people to go back to work with or without a health risk. So, you know, yeah, the people were happy at the factories. Has the underlying issue actually been addressed? Two different questions. Absolutely. 10 and, and if it's that, yes. Um, the, the, this disease is peak and it's on its way out, then great. The economy is going to eventually gain steam. If it's people have been sent back and they're not really well, um, it's going to get far worse than it is today. Yeah. All right. So again, I believe we need to hope for the best, prepare for the worst and uh, be vigilant and or out of our government and expect more out of the new sources that we can Sue.
Speaker 1:Richard, I'll leave you at that and now you have things to do. Thanks so much for participating again in this midweek podcast. I really do appreciate it, but the numbers are telling us that more people want to listen to this too. So thanks.
Speaker 2:I won't give up on policy and I won't give up on, um, you know, I challenge anybody to show me that partisan party politics is the way to go. Um, and if you can find somebody or anybody that's listening can find somebody messaged me, bring them on and let's let it convinced me that the way to go is to, you know, mindlessly back one party or the other. Right.
Speaker 1:Exactly. All right. That's a challenge to everybody out there. Right out. Ready to have that talk with the gloves on. Rich, thanks so much and we'll talk to you in a couple of days. All right. Do you have a good rest of the week? Alright, Brian, good chatting. Alright, you have been listening to Richard healthy's common bridge podcast recording and post-production provided by stunt three multimedia. All rights are reserved by Richard helpy. For more information, visit Richard helpy.com.