MAGA Bingo (Guest: Tom Bonier)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:03:23 — 26.8MB)

Subscribe! RSS

On Our Political Radar This Week…

VIDEO – Full U.S. Senate Candidate Debate (WXYZ TV – Detroit)

We are now less than a Scaramucci away from the last day of voting in the mid-term. While Democrats focus their final campaign messaging on the many failures and corruption of Trump Republicans, Trump and some of his desperate candidates are resorting to gutter politics of Islamophobia, threatening federal spending contingent on a GOP victory, calling the victim of childhood rape a liar and claiming that we are living in a golden age of prosperity.

Some of it played out on Wednesday as Mike Rogers and Abdul El-Sayed tangled in their 2nd and last televised debate. The Republican message here is that Michigan born-and-bred Abdul El-Sayed is a foreign terrorist who poses an imminent threat to America, with Mike Rogers devoting much of their Tuesday debate continuing his efforts to brand Dr. El-Sayed as a one-person Hamas sleeper cell.

El-Sayed provided the most memorable phrase of the night – labeling Rogers’ responses as coming out of the MAGA Bingo card, demonstrating his total adherence to Donald Trump’s demands. During the debate, Rogers made claims about his support among Democrats, citing as his main example former one-term Michigan Democratic Party chair Lon Johnson. Turns out it’s what we call an Astroturf organization – a bought-and-paid-for conservative funded political operation masquerading as a grassroots movement.

Michigan isn’t the only target of the GOPs sewer politics. In Texas, a newly incorporated group is spreading mailers and text messages designed to turn transgender Texans into pariahs, and hint that Democrat James Talarico is a gay vegan who needed treatment this month for mental health issues … when Talarico was actually sidelined by the flu.

In Ohio, Vivek Ramaswamy is spending $4-million on an ad from Democrat Dr. Amy Acton’s mother – who hasn’t talked with her daughter in 50 years. Mommy dearest calls her estranged daughter, a victim of childhood sexual abuse by her step-father, a liar. It is such a disgusting assault of decency that even Republicans (including former presidential candidates Chris Christie and Nikki Haley, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and former Ohio Governor John Kasich) are calling out Ramaswamy for the ad. Not on the list: another Ohioan – J.D. Vance, whose criticism was aimed instead at Republican critics of the ad. Acton’s campaign countered quickly, and effectively, with a message from her brother who was also a victim of abuse by the step-father.

We have dual presidential rallies in southeast Michigan this weekend. On Saturday, it’s Barack Obama headlining a get-out-the-vote event in Detroit. A day later, Donald Trump brings his MAGA nostalgia tour to St. Clair County. Don’t be surprised if he compliments nepo candidate Mike Bouchard Jr. with his ultimate praise: having a great ass. The weekend amounts to a political version of Luke Skywalker on Saturday and Darth Vader on Sunday.

Trump has created a new headache for Republican candidates, shifting American power away from defending Ukraine and instead helping Putin pay for the continued bombardment. The move has outraged even congressional Republicans, especially praise of the Russian dictator by Trump golf buddy Steve Witkoff who labeled Putin “a humanitarian.”

A totally fictitious political poll may have tanked the U.S. Senate campaign of state Senator Mallory McMorrow and, in the process, completely changed the face of the most watched U.S. Senate race in the nation. An outfit calling itself “Wedgewood Polls” admitted that its results were mostly fabricatedMcMorrow says the June release from Wedgewood placing her at 9% damaged fundraising, devastated volunteers and intensified pressure to leave the race. The revelation raises a pair of questions:

Was the poll a deliberate effort to upend a candidate many, including me, believed to be the strongest challenger for Mike Rogers; and
Should this blatant election manipulation be illegal?

There’s a new email in your inbox from the Social Security Administration promoting the $1,000 payments to around 70,000 children to kickstart retirement savings. Surprise of surprises, the payments are called Trump Accounts. The five-paragraph email mentions the name Trump NINE times to make sure we all get the message. There isn’t, however, any mention of the $5,000 payment we’ll all get if Republicans maintain control of Congress.

Joining the pre-election chat fest is Tom Bonier, a veteran Democratic political strategist, data guru, and Chief Executive Officer of the Tara Group and a senior advisor to the powerhouse political data firm TargetSmart. Tom previously co-founded Clarity Campaign Labs in 2012 and helped build it into one of the nation’s leading Democratic analytics and research firms. He has spent more than 20 years working in Democratic and progressive politics.

Throughout his career, Bonier has received numerous awards for his contributions to political campaigning, redistricting, and strategic planning. He has been an adjunct lecturer at Howard University and also appeared as a commentator for multiple publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Politico, as well as on-air on “News Hour” on PBS and “All Things Considered” on National Public Radio.