WKXL - New Hampshire Talk Radio

Cail & Company LIVE with Neil Levesque

Neil Levesque, Executive Director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College, joined us Wednesday to discuss the Institute's just-released Presidential survey. Mr. Levesque also talked about the events of this past week in the aftermath of the first Presidential debate.

Duration:: 43m
Broadcast on:: 03 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Good morning, it is Kail and Company Live here on WKXL and hchockradio.com. We are presented by Northeast Delta Dental and today we welcome back to Kail and Company after a long hiatus. Neil Lavecke, Neil, welcome back. Well, thanks for having me on, Ken. Well, it's always our pleasure here at WKXL to have you on, Neil, and no shortage of topics to discuss this morning. I guess there's really one topic that bears a lot of discussion, and that is, of course, the future of President Joe Biden, at least 25 Democrats. We're hearing this morning, Neil, 25 Democrat members of Congress are set to call on President Biden to drop out of the presidential race in the coming days. What do you make of that? Well, I think that the blood is in the water, essentially, and I think that it's hard to come back from something like this. I think it wasn't just a bad night or, you know, the president said something wrong in a debate. This was more than that, and people thought with their own eyes, and as a result, I think you're seeing some of these polls, like our poll, show that Biden has flipped significantly, and so Democratic lawmakers who are on the ballot with Biden, they don't want to be on the ballot with a weak candidate. And of course, the trouble that the president had in the debate isn't likely something that's going to change. It's not like, you know, the stock market went down significantly, and maybe now it'll go back up. It's not likely to change, and so as a result, you're going to see some Democratic governors got together on the call the other day. They're apparently meeting with the president, but the president is hunkered down and is not signaling any change in his campaign. Neither is the White House, and neither is his family. He'll affect the executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College, and he referred to the poll that just came out, St. Anselm just released its latest survey of registered New Hampshire voters taken right after the debate, June 28th and 29th. It was based on online surveys of over 1,700 New Hampshire registered voters, and has a sampling margin of error of plus or minus 2.3% having said all that. What were your major takeaways from the recent survey? Well, this is a major takeaway in the fact that New Hampshire really is in play now. Previous to that, New Hampshire was a solid Biden win. We had him anywhere between 12, 9, and then 10 points in December leading Donald Trump here in New Hampshire. Some of these key battleground states, six or seven key battleground states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Pennsylvania, those states where Trump has been winning, those are the real key battleground states. But I think now you can add New Hampshire to it. Trump now has a two-point lead here in New Hampshire. It may be small, and it is small, but it means that it's on the borderline here, and that is the post-debate time period, as you mentioned. Good news for Biden is that 67% of those who self-described is very liberal say that he is a favorable, they have a favorable opinion of Biden. Most likely those folks, you know, you find somebody who's very liberal, they're not going to go to the polls, and all of a sudden say, you know, I think Donald Trump's my guy, they'll come home, they'll hold their nose, most likely come home for Biden. So that's good for him, and also the other good news is we ask people, if the election will help today, would you vote for a Democrat or a Republican? And our polling in New Hampshire, even though Trump is up by two, the generic ballot, that's what they call that, is up by three points for the Democrats. So that's good news if you're a congressional candidate here running for the state center or other issues that the Democrats still have a slight edge. Neil, were you surprised to see a Trump showing in the second congressional district here in New Hampshire that was as strong as what it was in your survey? Well, I think if you look at the North Country numbers, and it is more of a rural district, now I know people in Nashua, downtown Nashua, who are listening to this, are saying, well, we're in the second congressional district, what do you mean we're rural? But it's more of a rural flavor, and maybe that's why maybe Trump is appealing to a more rural audience, but certainly the second congressional district has a four-point edge as far as Democrats or Republicans. So that means that there are a lot more registered Democrats than there are in the second district. However, in this poll, Donald Trump is winning in that district by two points as well. Which is kind of a surprise, but as you mentioned, there is a lot of rural area in that second congressional district, and it is a rather, as you mentioned, Nashua is a part of it as well as a lot of the North Country, so it's a very bizarre district, but normally a Democratic stronghold. Yeah, well, I mean, Congressman Custer's held that seat for a long time before that Congressman Bass holds and then Bass before that. So we did have a Republican in Bass who held it for many years, he was a moderate, but things change over time, and there's been some redistricting, slight redistricting in that area. But many people consider that district to be a Democratic district. There are more Democratic registrations, and so they sort of put that in the Democratic column. Now, this poll may change some of that. Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt about that. Now, you also mentioned the governor's meeting today. I think that's going to be mostly a virtual meeting that the governor's, the Democratic governors are going to have with President Biden. What do you expect to come out of that? I think that the White House and the president's going to slam them right back down, and nothing to see here, nothing to be concerned about, it was just a bad nighty yet a cold. I think, though, that Democratic governors have a little more leeway as far as telling the president how they feel compared to, let's say, a member of the House or the Senate. And so I think that I would love to be a fly on the wall. I can tell you that. But here's the whole thing. The whole thing is that voters saw with their own eyes, they didn't like it. Even Democrats cringed at what they saw. It's not going to change between now and the election. And again, the blood is in the water. The headlines since Thursday night have all been the president is in tough shape. And that is not a place you want to be in politics. You know, I was surprised at the amount of, well, quote unquote, shock there was among so many people because I mean, we've seen this coming for years. I think I think most people have seen his decline over the years and the amount of shock after Thursday's debate was really surprising to me. You know, I think a lot of people foresaw what might take place. Well, I think that the White House has been denying the fact that the president isn't in any sort of tough shape physically or mentally. He had good runs with the State of the Union addresses. He did very well with those, I think, and read, you know, but that's reading off a teleprompter. I think when you've got the situation where there's close ups, Trump, you know, I don't think won the debate. I think that he was just staying there and took advantage of it. I will say that the one line where he said, well, I don't know what he said and I don't think he know what he said. I mean, that was just, that was a slam dunk. And again, I don't, you've got to remember when you look at our poll numbers that it's not that Trump is winning and it's not that a lot of people are all of a sudden saying Trump's the greatest thing, it's, and we're very enthusiastic, they don't like him either, but they were scared or alarmed or surprised by what they saw on that debate and it was a demoralizing effect, I think, for many people who are in this 17% to 19% of people who don't like either candidate whose mind can be changed, those people, I think were a little bit shocked. Neil Levesque is with us, the executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anseln College. Neil, can you stay with us for a few more minutes? Yep. All right, Neil will be with us right after the break. Kaitlyn company live here on WKXL, NHTalkRadio.com. We are presented by Northeast Elvedetal and we will be right back. [Music] Welcome back, Kaitlyn company live here on WKXL, NHTalkRadio.com. Joined today by Neil Levesque, the executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anseln College and Neil, let me put you in the position of being President Biden's top adviser right now, what would your advice be? Well, that's an interesting one, but I haven't gotten that question before. The reason parties exist is to win and that's it, the only reason that people get together with all these other people that don't necessarily like is because they want to win and to some degree Trump isn't just any Republican, he's a Republican that a lot of people want to defeat or not allow back in office and so the stakes are very high and I think anytime you have an elected official they believe that they're the only ones that can save whatever is going on. They're the only ones that can do the job and the truth is there's plenty of people that can do the job and they're actually if you look at the poll numbers a lot of other candidates that can defeat Trump or at least do better than he does. I think right now he's very damaged and this is going to be a tough road ahead and the big question is, okay, so maybe he gets to November election, but then what? So I think it's very tough and I think Democrats really, you know, the Democrats here in New Hampshire responded the day after the debate by saying or his supporters did suck it up buttercup. That was the quote. Well, if you're a voter you don't have to suck up anything. You can make a choice and if that's the message that is not necessarily something that's going to win that 17 to 19 percent of voters that are sort of in the middle. But of course Biden has all the power, I mean he has virtually all the delegates. I think Dean Phillips who ran in the primary here in New Hampshire against Biden has maybe three delegates. So what Neil constitutionally is the process for Biden to exit if that is the path that is taken? Well, this is a party operation because they choose their nominee. They have not chosen their nominee yet. There are pledge delegates right now and you're right Biden has those pledge delegates. So the fall is in his court, not like he's going to get ousted by delegates. He has to basically say, I'm not going to do this and therefore, so his delegates can go where he wants. Now part of the mechanism of a party apparatus is that it's the Biden-Harris campaign. So the money that has been raised by the Biden-Harris campaign can technically be spent by a Harris campaign. That's a very important note because there's a lot of money there. So the other factor is she is the sitting vice president. So it would be I think extremely awkward for her to not become the nominee if Biden does choose to not carry this forward. I think it would be very awkward. Somebody said to me, well, maybe she'll choose not to run. And you've got to keep in mind in politics, these are completely very competitive people. At this level, they would do anything for this job or to hold on to the job. That's how they got here. We want that in our system, people who really want a job. And so they're not likely to sort of say, you know what, I think, somebody else may be able to beat Donald Trump versus me. It's more likely that they'll have to come to pressure. And that's why so many people are saying right now that if it remains the Biden-Harris ticket that a vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Kamala Harris. That's right. But I still think it very much unnerves people to see that debate and then think of the president getting a call at three in the morning and how does he react. So I don't think that that's necessarily a good answer. She pulls slightly, very slightly better than he does, but it's slight. You've got to look at this, sort of, there are mechanisms in place here within their party to choose another candidate if that happens. And so there is a way out. The other thing is we've got to remember that Americans like a fresh face to some degree. They like the new brand. And you know, if there's a new younger candidate that replaces Biden, it's not as if, again, Trump's not necessarily increasing his numbers. If there was a different candidate, it might actually mean that Trump would be more in trouble than he is now. And I think that they've got to worry about that. I think that the White House is buckling down here and saying nothing to see, nothing to do. And I think that the Trump campaign is probably saying, crushing their fingers thinking we hope that Biden doesn't get out because we don't want to have to deal with who the next person is. Yeah. And do you read anything into Gavin Newsom coming to New Hampshire next week? Well, I think that he most likely scheduled this trip before the debate. But there are people definitely like him that are circling the wagons. But the question becomes whether or not, mechanically, you could get those pledge delegates to your own campaign, how you would get the money for such an operation. You know, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan is another one. But I think it's interesting that Gavin Newsom is coming. Yeah, no doubt that the timing is probably intriguing to many people. Now, would you suggest, I mean, there's some political pundits who suggest that the best thing that the White House could do is send Biden out to do a few press conferences, a few interviews. He's going to do one this Friday with George Stephanopoulos on ABC. You'd have to think that that with Stephanopoulos formally Bill Clinton's press secretary, you'd have to think that was going to be a friendly one. Well, that's what people think, right? So if you're Stephanopoulos, you're thinking everybody thinks this is going to be an easy thing and I'm going to give them a pass and I'm going to try to help them out. Stephanopoulos makes a lot of money being a journalist now and he's got something to prove that he's not going to be that way. So I think it's actually a little bit dangerous for Biden. I think that every time Biden's gotten in trouble, they say, well, he's going to go on the road and he's going to talk to the American people because he's a great communicator and I think they're very wrong. I don't know that he can dig out of this because I think that people tuned into the debate they saw with their own eyes. You know, I think the outcome of the 2020 election, Neil, in my humble opinion, would have been much different had Joe Biden run a normal presidential campaign rather than won basically from a bunker in Delaware. I think people would have seen more of Joe Biden had he been out on the road at making various stops. I think the outcome could have been very different. I think that the bigger thing would have been if there was a New Hampshire president or primary. Now we know why the Democrats didn't want Iowa and New Hampshire, right? They wanted to get rid of us because they don't want the president out there campaigning. And they don't want them taking questions. And they don't want voters subject to watching him. They wanted to tell a prompter situation or, you know, or during COVID, you know, being in the base. And that was a good strategy for them. But at some point, the cream rises to the top and that's what happened at the bait. Yep. No doubt about that. Interestingly, it's been reported that Hunter Biden has been at the many of the top level or White House meetings of late. What do you read into that? Well, I think when somebody is under attack, you know, family members tend to gather around and sort of see what they can do to help because they're kind of the front lines. I think you see not only Hunter Biden, but Jill Biden is completely out front on this to a degree that I think she's getting some significant criticism for. I think that when you have a, you know, expected felon like Hunter Biden who got a very interesting background being the main proponent for a president that's wounded already. If I wrote this as a novel, nobody would buy it. They wouldn't buy the whole politics today. Ain't that the truth? People would say, "There's no one will believe this story, Neil, because it's too far fetched." I mean, every day there's a new thing that I, ordinarily I would say that you can't make this up, you know. And as well as the end of the American politics, and when I go to the cookouts before the July, I'm going to get the same question. It's just the best we can do. We have to bring every 30 million people in America where we're at. And look at the candidates that we have. Neil, always great to have you on, and hopefully we'll talk to you in the very near future once again. Thank you, Ken. All right, Neil Levesque, executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College, certainly strange times where we're going through, I think, unprecedented really. We'll take a break, Kale & Company continues right here, WKXL, NHChalkRadio.com, presented by Northeast Delta Dental, and we'll be right back. Welcome back. Sounds like a great forecast for tomorrow, the 4th of July. Yeah, happy to say that we will be joining you tomorrow with a very special show. Well, I think it's special anyway, because I'm a baseball lover unabashedly. And to me, nothing goes with the 4th of July, like a great barbecue, fireworks, and baseball. Hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet, as the commercial once said years ago. And you know, we can't give you a barbecue here at WKXL, we can't give you fireworks, but we can give you some of the best baseball music of all time, and that's what we are going to do. The top nine baseball hits of all time will be played tomorrow between 8 and 9 a.m. And then if you miss that one, we'll repeat it from 7 to 8 p.m. tomorrow night. And we'll also post it online after it's been on the radio, and you'll be able to listen to these tunes over and over again. Now, I'm sure some will disagree with the selections that we are going to make and present tomorrow. Someone will ask for Neil Diamond. Oh, sure, of course, of course they will, because they already have. I mean, you know, I ask random people sometimes, you know, "What's your favorite baseball song?" Sweet Caroline. Sweet Caroline, yeah, Sweet Caroline comes up, I think, more than anything else. More than even the traditional, "Take me out to the ballgame." I'm surprised that didn't make the list. Well, you know, it's just, we ask some of our listeners, we ask some people that follow me on Facebook, and it was mentioned not as much as some of the others, so we will see what happens tomorrow when we unveil the top nine baseball hits of all time, if you will. I'm sure there will be some controversy, but I think they're all great. It's tough to rank them, but we will present all nine tomorrow between eight and nine in the morning, and then again, rebroadcast it from seven to eight at night, and it'll be on our NH Talk Radio website and Facebook page. So you'll be able to listen to those songs, and you might record them, and use it as your background, your Fourth of July celebration music, some of it anyway. Back-to-back music tomorrow on two different shows, actually. Oh, really? Yeah. So you've got baseball music on Kale & Company tomorrow morning, and we have patriotic music and a reading of the Declaration of Independence on Artful Living right afterwards. Wow. All right. Well, we'll look forward to both of those two. Fourth of July oriented shows, back-to-back, that'll be a lot of fun and great listening here between eight and 10 tomorrow on WKXL. So tune in for that. And also, I want to mention again that starting this past Monday, WKXL's brand new contest, we're calling it Vanity Insanity, and we have our WKXL spotters on the road spotting those clever, imaginative New Hampshire vanity license plates. And I think Andrew Gibson, our executive producer, we have more vanity license plates per capita in New Hampshire than any other state. I would agree with that, I mean, just in my area alone, in the buildings surrounding where I live, I've seen multiple vanity plates, so it seems like for every five cars, there's three people with vanity plates. No, it seems that way. It almost seems like it's a 50/50 split here in New Hampshire in terms of vanity plates. Now, obviously, because of the size of our state, we don't have the most vanity plates, not per capita, I think that we do, and we selected our first vanity plate and announced it this past Monday. If you are this person or you know this person, get in touch with them. The New Hampshire license plate is got lost, G-O-T, L-O-S-T, got lost, it was spotted in Concord within the past week, and so give us a call at 603-224-1450. And if you can identify that you are in fact the owner of that plate, you can claim your prize, which is going to be a conventional oil change, or a synthetic blend oil, in addition to a thorough check up of your vehicle from our good friends at Weed Family Automotive 124 Store Street in Concord. So we thank them for their participation in vanity in sanity. And again, the plate this week is got lost, G-O-T, L-O-S-T. And we'll announce another one, a new one on Monday. If you have got lost, you have to call us by Monday. And I will tell you that you will, after today, have to call on Monday because pretty much our offices are going to be shut down here for the next couple of days. So 603-224-1450, you will have today and Monday to give us a call. That once again, 603-224-1450. Thanks to Neil Levech for being with us today. Again, we have the top nine baseball hits of all time tomorrow and then Friday. The Fund Munch will be here, Kitty Rae, our resident flick chick. And I know she was watching recently, and maybe she'll talk about this a little bit, the Celine Dion saga that has been on one of the platforms, one of the streaming platforms. And she said it was quite sad. I did not see it, Kitty Rae saw it. And maybe she'll tell you a little bit about that on Friday. And Tom Raffio will be with us, President CEO of Northeast Delta Dental, speaking of Delta Dental Stadium in Manchester is going to be coming alive July 4th, 5th and 6th, as the New Hampshire official cats will be hosting the Boston Red Sox, double-A affiliate, the Portland Sea Dogs, and all games at 635 tomorrow, Friday and Saturday, and all games will feature a post-game fireworks display. And the Atlas fireworks folks do a terrific job they have for years putting on great fireworks presentations at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium, or simply Delta Dental Stadium as they are calling it now. But in any rate, should be a lot of fun. And check out a baseball game over the 4th of July or any other activities that are going on. The Manchester fireworks will be tonight at Arms Park. So that'll be tonight. The conquered fireworks will be tomorrow evening. And they will be set off at Memorial Field right in our backyard here at WK XL. So Manchester tonight conquered tomorrow night, the municipal fireworks presentations, and there are many, many fireworks shows around the state that you'll have the opportunity to check out over the, you know, whether it be tonight, tomorrow night, or some even extend into the weekend, and after the break we'll tell you about those. But we do have a break coming up here, and then at the end of the show we're going to have a special treat for you today, and I think only appropriate that we go into the 4th of July holiday, and here from Lee Greenwood, just before we wrap things up today here on KLL and Company Live, WK XL, NHTalkRadio.com again, tomorrow, greatest hits in baseball music of all time, the top nine, as we selected them here at WK XL. I know Sweet Caroline was probably the one that was suggested most, however, Sweet Caroline is not a baseball song. It's a song that is played at Fenway Park, and I think some other teams have adopted it now after the Red Sox got the ball started about 20 years ago, but Sweet Caroline is not a baseball song. The song that's played in a baseball park, but not a baseball song. Alright, we will take a break, and then come back with more right here, WK XL, NHTalkRadio.com. We are proudly presented by our good friends at Northeast Delta Dental, and after this break, we will be right back. Welcome back, KLL and Company Live here on WK XL, NHTalkRadio.com. We had Neil LeVec on earlier in the program today, if you missed it, check it out a little time, and if you missed it, it will be posted on our NHTalkRadio.com page as well. We'll have some interesting things to say as dozens of House Democrats are reportedly ready to call on President Biden to step aside as he faces continued scrutiny over his disastrous debate performance last week, and there's really no other way to put it. At least 25 Democratic lawmakers will call for Biden to relinquish the Democratic nomination if he seems shaky. In the coming days, Reuters reported citing an unnamed House Democratic aide and supplying that information that 25 Democratic lawmakers will call for Biden to step down as the nominee for the Democratic Party. The second House Democratic aide and moderate House Democrat in competitive races are also talking about Biden stepping down and getting hammered in their districts this week about that possibility. U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett became the first congressional Democrat to call for Biden to withdraw from the presidential race on Tuesday. He told NBC News in an interview that he hoped other Democratic lawmakers would follow his lead, and Mike Quigley, Democratic Representative, a moderate from Illinois told CNN on Tuesday that he has to be honest with himself. It's his decision referring to Biden. I just want him to appreciate it this time just how much it impacts just not his race, but all of the other races coming in November, all the down ballot races for Senate and all the congressional seats are up for voting every two years. So all the congressional candidates are concerned about it. And Representative Jared Golden, a Democrat from Vermont, and Representative Marie Glucin Camp Perez, a Democrat from Washington, each predicted Tuesday that former President Trump would defeat Biden in November. The margin is very close right now, no matter what state you're talking about. As Neil mentioned in his most recent New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College survey, Donald Trump in primarily a blue state, we have become a blue state here in New Hampshire, our entire congressional delegation is a Democrat. And so we are considered a blue state, but Donald Trump right now has a two percentage point lead, according to that survey here in New Hampshire. And there's also been talk that, and I think it's a reality, and it's coming soon that all the Democratic governors in the country are going to be meeting in a teleconference later today with President Biden. You know, as I mentioned to Neil, Biden pretty much ran a basement candidacy in 2020 due to COVID. I mean, he had a good excuse to stay in the basement, I guess. Donald Trump was out on a campaign trail, but Biden stayed pretty much in his basement. I think the outcome of the entire election would have been totally different had Biden actually been out stumping on the campaign trail as a normal candidate would, but he had the luxury of not having to do that and not really being questioned by others that why he did not do that. Now, I think we're finding out why he did not do that and stayed pretty much in the bunker in Delaware, and anyway, it's, as Neil of Ex said, if he wrote a novel and laid it out exactly as it has played out over the last couple of years, nobody would believe it. Nobody would believe the high stakes intrigue that is going on between the trials and tribulations of Donald Trump, the possible incarceration of the president's son, and of course, both Trump and Hunter Biden found guilty in courtrooms in recent weeks, everything that has gone on over the past couple of years. If you put it in a novel, nobody would believe it. Even James Patterson, I don't think he could even put it into words and people would believe it. But at any rate, that's the status that we're in right now. We will see how it plays out over the days and weeks ahead, breaking news all the time these days. So at any rate, we will tell you that again, if you missed it, the fireworks in Manchester, the municipal fireworks in the Queen City will be tonight. They will be in Concord tomorrow, the Never's Band is going to be playing at Memorial Fields, starting at 745 tomorrow night. Fireworks will take place at 920 and the rain date, if we should have rain, but it doesn't look like it, will be on Friday. Now, and over is having fireworks at dusk on Thursday, the 4th of July, and let's see, Hopkinton is going to have a Family Fund Day, 17th Annual Family Fund Day, Riverway Park in Contucoque, and that will begin at 930 tomorrow in Hopkinton. And if you're looking for a fireworks display on the weekend, may I suggest Canterbury, the Canterbury Elementary School, it will be the location on Saturday for fireworks. So you can check out that display. And again, Friday, I should say Thursday, Friday and Saturday fireworks following the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, Portland Sea Dogs games at Delta Nettle Stadium in Manchester. Well, as promised, we are going to leave you today with what has become one of the more patriotic songs in this country and performed by Lee Greenwood. If tomorrow all the things were gone, I'd work for all my life and I had to start again. With just my children and my wife, I thank my lucky stars to be living here in a day, 'cause the flag still stands for freedom, and they can't take that away. And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free, and I won't forget the man who died, who gave that right to me, and I gladly stand up next to you, and if in her still today, 'cause there ain't no doubt I love this land, God bless the USA. From the lakes of Minnesota to the hills of Tennessee, across the plains of Texas, from the sea to shining sea, from Detroit down to Houston, and New York to LA, where there's no doubt that I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free, and I won't forget the man who died, who gave that right to me, and I gladly stand up next to you, and if in her still today, 'cause there ain't no doubt I love this land, God bless the USA. And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free, and I won't forget the man who died, who gave that right to me, and I gladly stand up next to you, and if in her still today, 'cause there ain't no doubt I love this land, God bless the USA. Have a very happy and healthy 4th of July to all our WKXL listeners. We appreciate all of you, and we'll be here tomorrow with the top 9 greatest hits in baseball music history right here on WKXL, nh.radio.com. We are presented by Northeast Delvedental, and remember folks, despite what may be going on in this crazy world of ours, we are proud to be Americans, and always look on the label. Right side of life. Happy 4th, everyone. the world of ours. (upbeat music)