This week, Mike and Jay start by discussing President Trump’s first address to a joint session of Congress. They both agree that it was the most presidential / least Trump-like speech he’s yet given. Then things get a bit more disputatious than usual, when Mike strongly objects to President Trump’s tweets about alleged illegal wiretapping of his organization by the Obama administration. Jay is deeply troubled that a president would tap the phones of a rival party’s presidential nominee, while Mike argues the Obama administration would have been derelict in its duty had it not investigated a major party presidential nominee with potential ties to a rival and unfriendly power.
Things cool down after that (Mike really did get pretty wound up for a while on the Russia thing) as they move on to discuss the first outlines of President Trump’s budget and the wave of threats against Jewish Community Centers.
As a dead center independent, this used to be my favorite podcast. I was even thinking of supporting it financially. Then the last while I’ve started to taper off listening to it. Michael has just become increasingly hysterical, argumentative and condescending. Today I thought I’d give it one more try. Holy!! Michael was even more unhinged! I don’t know how Jay can stand it, but I can’t. I’m done. Too bad. All I have left to look forward to is Right, Left and Center. Still mostly reasonable discussion there.
Hi Jeff – thanks so much for commenting! Believe it or not, there are a bunch of people who are saying exactly the same thing, except their feeling is that Jay is the one who’s gone off the rails and they wonder how *I* can stand it. 🙂 Sorry to hear the podcast isn’t doing it for you anymore, but I completely understand. I like LR&C too, though I feel like their ‘left’ person isn’t so hot, and that their ‘right’ guy almost always is far superior. I think that with Jay and me, there’s more of a balance – on some issues he advances somewhat better arguments causing me to rethink, and on other issues I do the same. At any rate, before you go I’d like to recommend another really good podcast in the same vein: Pantsuit Politics. – Best, Mike
Mike, I am impressed that you took the time to reply and thank you. I’m not talking about going off the rails on the merits of any issue….I’m talking about the manner of debate. I used to score you higher than Jay….better prepared, more articulate (odd, since Jay is a lawyer) etc. But Jay is always calm, always respectfull, never condescending, never emotional. You’ve either grown condescending and disrespectful recently or you were like that before and I just missed those occasions. I like intellectual, respectful discussion. If I want temper tantrums, there’s about a million other places I can go for those.
I was particularly worked up on Sunday’s show, but that’s definitely not usual for me. (Though I do tend to run a little bit hotter than Jay as a general rule.) Thanks for pointing it out – I think that from now on, I’m going to print out a ‘remain calm’ sign and post it on the side of my screen before each show, so I can be more likely to catch myself when I start to get wound up. Again, I really appreciate the comment, because without listeners letting me know these things (the podcaster equivalent of ‘spinach in my teeth’ I suppose) it would be a lot harder to adjust and improve.