Radio Interview with Peter Boyles

I got a chance to discuss Philip Atkinson's Bush should be president for life commentary Wednesday on the Peter Boyles Show, a talk radio program that's huge in Colorado. As a former Denver resident, I had to fight the urge to do shoutouts to my old coworkers at Zing Systems (failed interactive TV company) and DiveIn (failed city portal site).

To get it out of my system, word to Jonathan Bourne, Phil Weinstock, Don Wrege, Lev Lawrence, Stefanie Lerner, Meg Cardamone, Andrew Borakove and Jeff Pinkner! Let's do lunch at Tattered Cover! Phil's buying!

I tried to prepare for the interview, but Boyles quickly shot that to hell with questions I wasn't expecting, such as what do you think of President Bush and who is going to be the next president?

My answers, edited to make me sound more coherent than I did at 7 a.m. Mountain time:

We're in a tough position under President Bush because he refuses to recognize when it's time to change course. A true test of leadership is knowing when things are going in the wrong direction. Nearly a year has passed since the report of the Iraq Study Group, which was set up to give Bush constructive advice in the most sympathetic way possible. We're still stuck in Iraq.

Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States. I'm troubled by the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton pattern, but I don't see her losing with the lead she's built over Barack Obama and John Edwards. I told Boyles that Edwards will be her running mate, but it might be wishful thinking on my part. I like how he's made poverty a focus of his campaign. Despite my prediction, I gave small donations to Edwards and Obama, and neither will let me forget it. Every few days there's another make-or-break fundraising milestone that has to be reached. And Obama keeps hinting that I might get invited to dinner.

I didn't say this on the air, but my big concern with Clinton is that we'll get eight years of triangulation -- poll-tested solutions that keep her approval rating up without taking chances on hard solutions. The next president will inherit the Iraq war, global warming, illegal immigration, millions of retiring boomers and an Al Qaeda that's a strong today as it was in 2001. This is no time to make incremental improvements and declare victory.

I couldn't anticipate the reception I'd get from Boyles, whose show is touted for being "neither left nor right." He's a vocal critic of U.S. immigration policy and supporter of labor unions who broke stories on Ted Haggard and the JonBenet Ramsey murder in Boulder. In our conversation he sounded like a fan of the hell-raising, freewheeling world of blogs, telling me that he's a reader of the Drudge Retort, Drudge Report, LittleGreenFootballs and other sites across the political spectrum.

Politics · Radio · 2007/08/25 · 4 COMMENTS · Link

Comments

Sure Rodham is a phony. Sure no one knows where she is coming from on anything. Sure she can be b*tchy. Bur it seems like it's destiny. If she gets the DEM nomination then two alternatives are up to be decided -- either the GOPs nominate someone so totally noxious that advertising cannot get them to win a plurality in 2008 (McCain, with his fading star and "Bomb, bomb" rhetoric is perhaps the most obvious bad choice for the GOPs. Perhaps Brownback will also be as noxious), or the GOPs go for someone with such widespread appeal that they are an honest, intelligent, moderate on most issues, that it doesn't make any difference wether Hillary gets elected of the moderate GOP.

Still given how infected the GOPs have become with partisanship and dirty tricks, it's hard to think that any of the GOPs won't revert to bad governance and one-sidedness.

#1 · tnc · 2007/08/25

Note it's still very early in the political season.

Clinton has a lot of support, but even besides the issue of being a woman, she has a countervailing huge amount of baggage from being Hilary.

I expect that baggage to become more of a factor when the votes start getting counted.

#2 · Seth Finkelstein · 2007/08/25

The Clinton inevitability factor has resumed as of late but Spud aint counting Obama out just yet.

Hillary comes into the fray with a huge recognition factor but historically high unfavorables too.

Rogers aint the only one fearing that a Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton era represents a corporate dynastic continuity that betrays the spirit if not the letter of democracy.

Be Well.

#3 · dethspud · 2007/08/26

I pray every night that HRH hillary is the democratic nominee...........

The fact that she served (the Bubba two/fer) in the White House doesn't seem to concern the demmie -- but -- that will be one of the rallying cries for the pubbies. Her hands were all over foreign/domestic affairs while bubba was "busy" with cigars -- during "their" presidency.

She wants a "do/over"............

#4 · LZK · 2007/08/26