The John Batchelor Show

Tuesday 3 November 2020

Air Date: 
November 03, 2020

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Tuesday 3 November 2020 / Hour 1, Block A:  Conrad Black, @ConradMBlack, publisher, littérateur, commentator; in re: A  large number of Americans who respect  Trump’s stance n Covid: be brave abut it and try to run the country in a normal way, rather than protect the small group of people who are especially susceptible.  Not shut down 90% of the country for the 10% who are vulnerable—protect them, and open the country. . . .  What does this say about the Democratic party?  Can you hear the air coming out of the balloon in Toronto? Biden’s intellectual stamina in context of four years s questionable; it; been a pretend game.  Klobuchar would have run a stronger game.  Canada has opinions of who is the president of the United States; leaning toward Biden. He hasn’t impressed anyone as a strong man to impose his will on his party.
As a public personality, Trump has stylistic shortcomings.  North America is going back to work.  If he wins, will make a serious effort to bring the temperature down. If everyone is employed, you’ll be surprised how much happier the country is.
Tuesday 3 November 2020 / Hour 1, Block B:  Brett Arends: @BrettArends; @Marketwatch ROI column; in re: A good market day; $3 trillion in stimulus  The guns stocks will make me rich.  This is not the country the polls described for us 24 hours ago.  Brexit:  the polls were off base: Brexit was 4 points behind in the polls, and yet won by 4 points. People lied to the pollsters.  People just said, I won’t admit, even on the phone to a stranger, that I’m pro-Brexit lest they think I’m racist or xenophobic. All I want is to leave the EU.  If Trump is re-elected, people will ask about the $3 trillion stimulus.  
Tuesday 3 November 2020 / Hour 1, Block C:  John Fund, @johnfund, NRO, in re: The media well identified Trump’s problem w suburban women, but failed to identify Biden’s problem with Black and Latino voters.  Joe Biden a is a 78-year old tired, white man not exciting to younger voters. Georgia is changing demographically, esp Hispanic; and Trump is outperforming with Hispanics.  Virginia: Fairfax Co.—look at the downballot. Democrats thought they’d won more House seats in VA, but may wind up losing some.  Pennsylvania: collar counties turnout was not vigorous.  A muddled picture. PA will be very close, not decided for days.  Cultural cross-currents: middle-class suburbanites moving toward Trump; [richer] ones dislike Trump’s personality. Nancy Pelosi declares the center of resistance is her office; will demand stimulus bill.   Arizona Senatorial vote is important. Maybe a 49-51 Senate, don't know which way.  Recall: “margin of error” (3 of or 4 points); if Trump wins, “We told you there were [secret] voters.”
Tuesday 3 November 2020 / Hour 1, Block D: Jeff Bliss, #Pacific Watch, in re:  Biden encouraged early voting, so ballots were counted early; GOP voted in person, so that counting will be next. Among Hispanics, people who fled tyrannies in South America; and their children say, We don't want to go back there.   Democratic disappointments in Fairfax Co.   . . .  Man came forward to ask, “Which one is the Trump party?”  In Michigan: Debbie Dingell came back from lunch with auto workers: We might be in worse shape than we think, as they care above all about their jobs.
 
Hour Two
Tuesday 3 November 2020 / Hour 2, Block A:  Salena Zito: @SalenaZito @DCExaminer @RealClearPolitics; New York Post, CNN; Middle of Somewhere column; in re: From Alleghany Co (Pittsburgh) through the Midwest, what we see tonight is consistent with her reporting over the weeks and months.  Lancaster Co, and Mercer, and others, PA, the Amish: a caravan of horses and buggies; almost uniquely, Amish women are voting, many for the first time.   From Washington Co (on WV), to the collar counties around Philadelphia;   GOP looking to turn out 7 million votes.  The rural turnout was through the roof.   . . .  Two counties ran out of ballots today. Is this a photocopy of 2016?
Tuesday 3 November 2020 / Hour 2, Block B:  David Drucker: @DavidMDrucker, Washington Examiner; and Brett Arends: @BrettArends; @Marketwatch ROI column; in re: Down ticket races.  Donna Shalala losing her FL House seat.  President strong in Florida. 
Tuesday 3 November 2020 / Hour 2, Block C:   Gene Marks,  @genemarks @Guardian  #SmallBusinessAmerica @Guardian, Philadelphia Inquirer, and at TheHill; in re: A lot of business owners fear that a Biden victory would shut their business down, notably in Miami, for starts.    Biden promises to tax he rich: $400,000 and up. The average small-bz owner earns $50-75,000, but with all family members earning from the company, can go over $400,000. Also, FICA/payroll taxes kick in over $400K.  They see a higher-taxation environment, and they don't like it.  We haven’t even mentioned labor, health care, and the rest. Business owners all spoke only of policy, policy, policy.   Payroll Protection Program-- PPP  be repaid?  Regardless of who wins, there will be another round of stimulus.   Hold off on claims for forgiveness just now; bankers still figuring it out, Talk to your tax accountant now!
Tuesday 3 November 2020 / Hour 2, Block D:  Sebastian Gorka, @SebGorka, America First radio, in re: Major media have all the data on Florida (Trump) and refuse to call it; have inadequate data on Virginia but have called it for Biden.  A massive failure, still again after four years, of the media.   This afternoon, Biden with a bullhorn in Philadelphia speaking to about three dozen people.  I thought Pennsylvania was supposed to be Biden’s. Failure of the identitarian politics of the left. African-American and Hispanic vote moving toward Trump; Americans vote their pocketbook. We didn’t see his in the polls—they undersampled GOP, oversampled whites, well-to-do. What do we see? Incredible turnout in rural areas.  Rejecting the elite nostrums of last twenty years.  . .  . In the age of Trump, anything is possible. 
 
Hour Three
Tuesday 3 November 2020 / Hour 3, Block A:  Victor Davis Hanson: @VDHanson; Hoover Institution, in re:  The classical hero is denounced and hobbled until the very end, when he triumphs.  Is this Trump?   We were told that Biden would easily defeat him; he should have no hope.  But he didn't give up; made a miraculous recovery—seemed better after the flu than before.  Biden crew is too invested in the elite structure they count on. Fauci—mask, no mask; Dem governors applauding riots—much of the country was disgusted. Biden wasn't carefully examined by our colleagues in the media.   Hyerpartisanship; the echo chamber. Biden did a Nineteenth-Century campaign staying on his veranda.   American people not only didn’t embrace fear—they were defiant.
Tuesday 3 November 2020 / Hour 3, Block B:  Elizabeth Peek, TheHill and Fox News; in re:   Florida – Broward and Dade --was supposed  have been decided in favor of Biden—but a decided shift to Latino votes for Trump: his message was aimed at young Latino men.   Trump has outperformed 2016.   What he had to sell was the economy. Surprising only that Democrats banked on the whole message being Covid.  What a poor campaign Joe Biden has been running— you can’t run a campaign from your basement and ignore the press pool. And promise higher taxes! Republicans were voting for Donald Trump; Democrats were voting against Trump, had little interest in Biden, who looks frail, gets confused. 
Tuesday 3 November 2020 / Hour 3, Block C:  Chris Riegel: @Scala, @STRATACACHE; in re: Looking at the election from Dayton, Ohio:  Ohio has not, as expected turned blue.  World leaders ready to do deals with Trump?  If he wins, they’ll pragmatically have to.  The dollar-yuan trade:  just turned against the yuan.
Tuesday 3 November 2020 / Hour 3, Block D:  Andrew C McCarthy, @AndrewCMcCarthy, Ball of Collusion; and Thaddeus McCotter, @ThadMcCotter, American Greatness, in re: Michigan.  Stark difference with Philadelphia—which has stopped counting for the night.  How creative of them.  Andy: I said they needed to decide rules before the election.   Now, we’ll have chaos there, and probably have to decide after the election, which will be perceived as deciding the election.   Thaddeus: Justice Roberts: leave the politics to the politicians, and just be a jurist. At close, we do not have  clear picture.  No 270 in either camp.  To all the politicians responsible for counting the votes, the American people want an accounting, and they want it swiftly. Andy: The reason people cheat is because it works.  The concern is Pennsylvania, as they’re playing games, which is dangerous.
 
Hour Four
Tuesday 3 November 2020 / Hour 4, Block A:  John Catsimatidis,  @JCats2013, @CatsRoundtable, Red Apple Media & Cats Roundtable radio, in re:  Of the three states, PA MI WI, two are needed to make up for the loss of AZ, which turned blue (Californians emigrated there and to Texas), to get to 270.  It’s more important to get the correct numbers than worry about waiting, In Pennsylvania, tons of mail-in ballots, am worried about the quality of those ballots.    Not the usual Democratic turnout. “Pollsters have no reason to live any more.” Lindsay Graham’s victory speech: “To all the pollsters, you have no idea what you’re doing.  . . . This is the worst return on investment in the history of American elections.”   New York City streets are relatively quiet. 
Tuesday 3 November 2020 / Hour 4, Block B:  Sebastian Gorka, @SebGorka, America First radio, in re: Arizona, surprisingly, has gone for Joe Biden, which changes the electoral map.  More than a milli0n votes to be counted in Arizona – not clear who’s won. Mixing exit polls with counting—not cricket.  The role of the media—“decision centers” – what's that got to do with the Electoral College, or certifications by Secretaries of State?  I have zero expectation of course-correction by the media, the commentariat, the [elite]. What I’m looking for is the reactions from campaigns: “You quit counting at 9:30 PM??”
PA 20 electoral votes ; MI 16  electoral votes ; WI 10 electoral votes
Tuesday 3 November 2020 / Hour 4, Block C:  Michael Vlahos: @JHUWorldCrisis; Johns Hopkins; in re: We’ve long been discussing question of, are we now in a civil war?  Our electoral map is discontinuous with the past.  In the process of running well, gaining votes from perhaps half the American population, Trump’s presidential authority has been reaffirmed.  The blue and red elite anticipated the end of Trump.  Even Nature magazine has been completely politicized: “Trump will destroy science; only Biden can save it.”  Citizens who cling “to their Bibles and their guns” – talking down to voters.   At some point, the elite will have to recognize that this is a republic, and our votes are as valuable as theirs.  The problem is them—they don’t want to accept the Deplorables as their equals. A gigantic excruciating allegory. Jake Tapper leads the rush from the sinking ship.  Trump is not the evil cause of all that’s wrong with America; he represents those who feel spurned, insulted and injured by the elite. Biden called them chumps.
Tuesday 3 November 2020 / Hour 4, Block D: Michael Vlahos: @JHUWorldCrisis; Johns Hopkins; Brett Arends: @BrettArends; @Marketwatch ROI column; & Jeff Bliss, Pacific Watch, in re: Fox is saying that there’s no way for Trump to win Arizona (infuriating the governor); he’s ahead in WI, less in MI, and no one knows about PA. The Economist gave Biden a 95% chance of winning; have had to back off. The problem now is a contested election, with many court challenge and much legal wrangling; all the authority, the unstoppable ceremony of legitimacy, is squandered in bickering. What the markets do not want is an election that’s not resolved.
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