FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
Midday Mobile - Monday, September 9 2024 - Sean breaks down the latest from Governor Ivey's battle with the head of the VA
There will be no personal nor direct attacks on anyone. And I would ask that you please try to keep down the loud cheering and the clapping. There will be no booing and no unruly behavior. With that? - This is painful and it will be for a long time. - Don't fuck, baby! That's right, this man knows what's up. - After all, these are a couple of high-stepping turkeys and you know what to say about a high stepper. No step too high for a high stepper. - This is Midday Mobile with Sean Sullivan on FM Talk 1065. - Well, Sean's a tough guy. I mean, I think everybody knows that. You know, Sean, he took some licks. He hangs in there. - Yeah, what's wrong with the deal we got? I mean, the deal we got drank pretty good, don't it? Did you hear what I said? - So this is a Bathe Council. I had no doubt about them. That doesn't suck. - If you don't like it, you're bad. - Last question. Were you high on drugs? - Last question, kiss my ****. - Right, where we go, FM Talk 1065 at Midday Mobile. Glad to have you here on this Monday. Lots to do on today's show and a couple of different ways. Actually, several ways to get in touch with the show, telephone call. That works at 3430106. Also the same number for the text line 3430106 and with the FM Talk 1065 app. You can always leave us one of those talkback messages. Just use that microphone icon on the front page of the app and do that. Also, big improvement. Big improvement for me on college pick 'em. Of course, I'm in a like a 60-way time. I went from 327 to like 123 in college pick 'em. Really did not have a great performance either. It's just obviously some of y'all had even worse performance out there. But it's good to look. We've got some people that are really, really good at this and coming for you. Coming for you in college pick 'em. Reminder, you just got to get those picks in by Friday. Like I'm not Friday getting ready for the next week in college football. On today's show, my buddy Dr. Phillip Corey, University of South Alabama. Anthropologist is going to join us. We talked to him, I guess it was the last time we were talking about him, is some of the work they were doing where the, now moving forward, the proposed I-10 Mobile River Bridge project where the, like the ramp, the approach ramp to the bridge where it's going. They've been doing the dig there for any kind of archeological, you know, vines there. And it's really cool stuff that they found. I mean, stuff that's way, way old, stuff that's, you know, mobile in the 19, you know, right, 1900 turn of the century stuff. But he's been doing some other digs here in the broader view of what's going on in our neighborhood being South Alabama on the anthropology side. He'll join us in the, in the, in the second hour to talk more about that. All right, a couple of things up on my list as we get started here. Obviously, the story we covered a lot last week and we'll continue this week with interviews. I think I have, looks like, by the way, come up tomorrow. So he is a member of the FM Talk 106.5 team. He's also a Marine. He's also my buddy, Tom Clackston is going to join me. We'll talk about this story from up in, well, tomorrow part of it will be up in Montgomery. He has got, we'll talk about the situation with Admiral Davis also. He's got a car show coming up because he's Tom Clackston. He's the car guy. So we'll talk with him about that as well. Tomorrow also representative Chip Brown on Wednesday. We'll get into the story with him as well. So what's the latest, right? So if you've, if you've been listening this morning and data Dalton and then into Jeff's show, the latest here is that Admiral Kent Davis has not resigned as asked last week by Governor Ivy. Right? So he sent the letter and respectfully disagrees with resigning. Now the next step is what happens tomorrow. Now this reported a couple of different places. This one from my man, Dale Leesch over at Land Yap said, headline here, swamp tour, local vets plan a bus trip to defend the ADVA commissioner. So they're organizing here South Alabama Veterans Council, which is interesting too. I read this, what support they're going to get from veterans organizations around the state. I don't know. I know my people here with South Alabama Veterans Council, who you heard from last week are going to be up there. Dale writes, Governor K. Ivy could have a fight on her hands after calling a special meeting of the state board of veteran affairs to push for the removal of Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner, W. Kent Davis. The move by Ivy on Friday to set a meeting of the board, she chairs at 2.30. This is tomorrow, causes South Alabama Veterans Council to make the call to action for the local service members to fill a bus and travel to the state capital in defense of Davis. This Montgomery swamp, here's a quote from Pete Reame. He said, this is the Montgomery swamp, trying to snuff out veterans care. That he said that on Saturday. Also here, it says, in addition to defending Davis, Reame said the group also wants to show support for John Kilpatrick, who Ivy removed from the board last week with spokesman, a spokeswoman calling him a distraction. Kilpatrick, of course, on the board through his position with the military officers association and the American Alabama chapters. All right, so you've got, let me see here. I don't know who else, maybe Peter, Lou or any of y'all. Do y'all have any kind of word weather veterans groups from elsewhere in the state are going to come there and be with you and I'm waiting to hear that. So y'all can text me, let me know that or give me a call. It says, on and dale story, if you didn't hear this last week, the issue between Governor Ivy and the Veterans Board and Davis is the result of $7 million in ARPA funds. Remember the ARPA money that the state was trying to figure out all the ways to spend, right? The ARPA funds, the governor says Alabama Department of Veterans Administration mishandled that $7 million. They said they were eventually relocated to two different state employee healthcare insurance agencies. Now the off, the commentary here is that the money, in Montgomery Way, wanted to find itself to those state employee healthcare insurance agencies. And so therefore they found a, this is what people are saying, that therefore the state found a reason that the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs, they would say mishandled the money so it could end up going to these other places. Admiral Davis refutes Ivy's interpretation of the events that caused the money to be reallocated. He filed a since dismissed ethics complaint against Alabama Department of Mental Health Commissioner, Kim Boswell and others for colluding to take money from the ADVA. Now remember our discussions over the past, when it comes to what happens here with the ethics commission here in Alabama. That's its own thing, that's the, there's a problem too. You go back and realize when you peel the onion back, buff off old layers of paint, whatever. Analogy you want to do. The fact that the ethics commission seems, I think Rob Holbert said it earlier, is ethically challenged, he believes the head of it, all Britain's ethically challenged, then anything that goes through there, even if there was no malfeasance and there's been reporting about that that there has, but say the ethics commission was on the up and up, but you had some doubt of their ethical integrity. Anything that then goes through there, it could be, in this situation, pick another situation, somebody makes a filing against somebody in the ethics commission. If you don't trust the ethics commission, then the information ends up not being, the actual filing and the question about ethics, that person could be in the right, what the commission says could be absolutely right, but it's being judged by what had happened in the past with it. Since the issues between Ivy and Davis came about, Pete Reem said, because the former Admiral wanted some billions of dollars in funding for mental health care to come to veterans, Davis and the Veterans Board approved the funding for 33 different organizations, but Kim Boswell put a stop to it. Pete Reem went on to say the governor has decided to stand with lobbyists for ineffective healthcare and protect them while they malign a good man, like Admiral Davis, end quote. So here's the, here's the story for tomorrow. Here you go, veterans. South Alabama Veterans Council, the secretary of Fran Barber, and we love Fran, confirmed the bus will be leaving tomorrow from 10 in the morning, leaving from Montgomery 10 in the morning. They're going to leave from American Legion Post 88. Cost of the trip is 45 bucks, but the council won't turn anyone away who can't pay, they will ask for donations while on the trip. We say this too, if you're a veteran and you want to go up there and represent, we'll see how deep the wallet is here after a weekend, but I'll pay for a couple of y'all to go as well. So if you want to go, you don't have the cash, I will pay for it as well. So Pete, if you spread that down there, we'll make sure people are paying. All right, coming back, more bid day mobile. This is FM Talk 1065. (rock music) This is midday mobile with Sean Sullivan on FM Talk 1065. (rock music) All right, 1220 FM Talk 1065, midday mobile. Like this, check in with my buddy, David McCreary. We talk about, he goes far and wide to find these great vehicles you see at LCM. Well, I interrupted him. He was in the middle of doing just that right now. What were you, you're looking at cars right now, you're looking at trucks, what's on your, to get list? Anything that's nice and, and be a good payment car for anybody, we're just looking for the right vehicles. We don't have a list per se. We, when we see something and catches our eye, that's what we go for. Okay, so yeah, I mean, you don't go down there and say, okay, we need four midsize SUVs, four big trucks, four, you don't do it that way. No, a lot of people do, a lot of people get a list and they'll, you know, go wherever and they'll say, well, I'm looking for this, this, this, this, this, or they'll have a list of cars, they'll take you out, 10 of them, I mean, I don't, I don't even take a list. It's not, maybe I'm dyslexic or something, I can't concentrate on that. I just have to, when I see something, I'll walk towards it and if I can buy it, work the money, we buy it. I mean, I don't wanna try to be ageist or whatever, 'cause, but I mean, you, you probably have an innate sense of this, you've been doing this for a year or two, right? I mean, we understand our customers, but every time you think you understand your customer, you know, they surprise you. So, I mean, you know, advertising's just like what I'm doing. I mean, they always trying to find the right thing for the right person and hopefully, when they come out there, you already have it and you don't have to go find it. - Well, so tell folks if they wanna see what's already on the lot as you're getting more inventory, how do they find you all? - If you wanna come see everything that's on the lot now, or how we're not even plantation in Theodore, it's one mile south of I-10, exit 15A. You can call the office, 251-3750068. The guys are all there, they'll be there all week, got until six, and you can go to the website, lcmotorcars.com. We should have pictures of everything, and this should be a 20 car, two-day pickup, so we should have a bunch of vehicles coming. - Good stuff, be careful down there, and we'll talk to you when you get back. - All right, buddy, have a good day. - All right, they're gonna save McCreary at LCM MotorCars. Speaking of vehicles too, so I get an update here from Fox 10, we actually, on Sunday, we're making a loop here, coming back to the station, and the station got in this traffic, and it turned around, but this is from Mike Brantley over at Fox 10 TV. Said one person is dead, and another person taken to a local hospital for treatment, following an accident this morning on airport. Mobile Police Department said three vehicles were involved, happened before 9 a.m. on airport at Spring Station Road. Eastbound traffic was closed for a time, but at 1043 police said the accident was cleared, and airport was fully open to traffic, so some people were in that, I'd say some people, there are a bunch of us in that traffic, weren't there? Let's see here, we'll get to the text in a second, and then Todd Stacey's gonna join us about 1230. Let's see, the update here on Chocolate Store and Francine. You heard Dr. Bill talking about this morning. They've pushed the, I mean, this is, you know, they do the cone of uncertainty stuff. They've pushed a little bit east here, in the last, I don't know, hour, hour and a half. That doesn't mean that's gonna keep coming that way, but yeah, that's a Southwest Gulf, something Doc has taught us over time, that, you know, when you get to the, in the beginning of hurricane season and to the end, and we're not at the end, heck, we're at the peak, but you often see these storms that don't track their whole way across the Atlantic, they just form in the Gulf, you know, right here in our backyard. It looks like it says, they're monitoring the Bay of Campeche, since Saturday, Francine's strengthened to a tropical storm, storm expected to curve northward and intensify into the next hurricane of the season, over the next couple of days, I think the, yeah, it looked like onshore impact, they're predicting onshore impact as a hurricane, I think a category one at this point would be, as the track goes now, I don't know, they don't have a detailed map, but like Cocodary, Louisiana, West of Venice in there, which will mean, you know, rain for us for sure. So we'll keep an eye on it, and of course we'll get updates from staff meteorologist, Dr. Bill Williams, when anything changes, he'll hop on with us and bring the actual science and the details into the mix. All right, to the text line here, Paul says, be glad you're a Bama fan. I'm always, I'm always glad I'm a Bama fan. He said, yeah, Auburn is terrible. Who, I wonder what happened. Yeah, I know that what exactly week one matchup was very tough, but that is a, I mean, I mean, it felt, listen, and I'm happy to be a Bama fan. I'm a graduated Bama, so I'm always gonna be a Bama fan, but I didn't think they looked very great, Paul. I was not exactly, I was not exactly overjoyed with some of the things I saw at a Bama on Saturday. Wayne, it's, but man, Wayne, Wayne, we gotta get you back in here soon. So Wayne Biggs just said, good afternoon, and join the show as usual. I will pitch in and pay for two veterans to go to Montgomery as well. Thanks for supporting our vets. So there's, yeah, so Pete, if you're listening, or Lou Lartigue, or my man, Tom Clackston, if there are any vets that wanna go to this meeting with the board hearing, with Governor Ivy, 230 to borrow Montgomery, I know y'all are taking the bus, I think it's $45 seat, you said. So if there's, I'll send two, Wayne will send two. So just let us know, we'll go ahead and get you the money to put those veterans on the bus. Jerry and Fort Morgan, please share the contact information for the Veterans Council on your website. Probably be easier, Jerry, for us to put it, website. You gotta go through, you know, like when we put it on three big things and all that, it's a little less fluid than associated, you have to go in and go to it, I don't have time to exploit it. But it's a little clunkier to do that. Things that we put on the website stay for a little bit of time 'cause it takes a little bit longer. Jerry, if you follow us on Facebook, we'll put it up there. I can put it on the @FMTalk1065 feed for Twitter or X. If those work for you, let me know. But it's S-A-V-C dot info. All right, Sierra Alpha Victor Charlie dot info. And if you go there, you'll see that's their website and get all the information from South Alabama Veterans Council. I am interested, so this is our people, my people, that are going from South Alabama Veterans Council, but I do wonder, I mean, this affects, while it affects here, you have Admiral Davis affected by this obviously, but John Kilpatrick, who is local, being affected, removed from the board by Governor Ivy. But Davis and the Alabama Department of Veteran Affairs applies to all the state of Alabama, all 67 counties. I am wondering if other veterans groups from around the state are doing the same thing. Now, we have a pretty connected and robust veterans group around here, which I love, but I am interested to see who else might show up there tomorrow to 30 in Montgomery. Texture says, "Help, I have U-verse, how to watch the football." I don't know, I have one of those, I got one that Elon Musk rigs, right? I got the Starlink, and the Starlink comes to the TV and I do watch it on YouTube TV, but I get the difference, so that's how I do. I do not know if somebody can help this person, how they watch football and U-verse, I do not know. Sean in Baldwin County said, "Governor Ivy has vindictive mean straight-raiser, totem woman, I'm afraid vets will lose this." Sean, I think you're right in the fact that if she's holding this meeting tomorrow, it is at her discretion, right? So, I mean, technically she can have Admiral Davis be relieved from the job. It's the court of public opinion, I guess, that we're talking about right now, but if she's going to this meeting, call that meeting, it seems to have, remember last week, Sean when I said, this is like very ungovernor Ivy thing to do, to come straight out and publicly ask for a resignation and do all that, makes me think she thinks she can win this thing in the court of public opinion, although some say it doesn't matter, 'cause she's lame duck, she's not gonna run again, but she doesn't wanna take the, I wouldn't think she wants to take the clobbering over this if she's all in the wrong, doesn't wanna take the clobbering over this for the next couple of years, but... So, all right, and thank you Tucker as well, said he's good for two tickets as well. So, there we go, so Pete and everybody, Lou, and we'll get you all a text here at the break, but there are any veterans that wanna go, there's at least six are covered, they can't afford it, six seats covered, imagined by the end of the day, any veteran that wants to get on that bus, is it a bus or is it a coach, right? I think it's probably a coach. I learned that family in the business, I would say, hey, look at the buses, those are motor coaches, they're not buses, but if they need, if their veterans need their, they wanna go, we'll pay for it, we'll make it happen. All right, let's see, so yeah, y'all can keep those coming in, I'll keep them lined up on the text line and pass that information off to the South Alabama Veterans Council. So, y'all just keep them, put them to the text line, and then we can keep up with them right there. Coming back from the break, Todd Stacey's gonna join me. Of course, we're gonna talk about this story, the meeting in Montgomery tomorrow, with Governor Ivy calling this meeting. Also, AL2, of course we've heard recently on this show from Shomori Fingers, from Caroline Dobson, won't get his take on the politics nationally and how they play into AL2, do they? And what do we expect here over the next, but eight weeks? I think eight weeks, that's it, until we're heading for the polls. News coming up next. (upbeat music) ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Said ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Come on ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ This is Midday Mobile with Sean Sullivan on FM Talk 1065. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) At 1235, FM Talk 1065 at Midday Mobile. Oh, great, great, always been great. I sent a text on to South Alabama Veterans Council. And so, somebody of y'all stepped up on the text line here, if they have, I will let you know, if they need veterans to have their, I think that's $45 bus trip up there, paid for. Where, myself, a bunch of y'all on the text line, we're all in for it. We'll make sure all of them that want to go, that they have room for, have that trip paid for, to go to Montgomery tomorrow. Which is a pretty good transition here into, or next conversation. The crowd goes wild, the band behind Alabama Daily News, Capitol Journal, and I'd say Auburn fan that, are you disgruntled this Monday? How are you feeling, Todd Stacy? Not great, Bob. (laughing) It is what it is. Over the years, you've learned to accept those things. The hours of the game had a lot of hopes, but Cal came with their own plan, so it was not that fun. - All right, well, let's talk about what's happening in Montgomery tomorrow. Of course, you're reporting about this. You actually talked about this on the disagreement, we'll call it at this point, between the Governor and Admiral Davis. You're talking about this Capitol Journal, but the email comes out as well. Talking about the, is it a meeting, a hearing? What do we call this thing at 2.30, that the Governor has convened tomorrow? - Right, the Governor has called a special meeting of the Alabama State Board of Veterans Affairs, specifically to consider the dismissal of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Kent Davis. I assume you'll have been talking about this. - A bunch. - The preemble there. - Yeah, sure, what happened is, so I mean, we didn't talk about it last week. And, but yeah, so the South Alabama Veterans Council is taking a group up to be at that meeting tomorrow, and just a peat ream who's with the group, and said, you know, people can't pay for their busway up there, find a way, and you know, this audience is fantastic. They're ready to pay for every veteran that wants to go up there. Do you, do you hear, are there like, seems like a bus from here is going, do you hear other veterans' councils around the state? I mean, are there other veterans coming to this? - No, it seems to be a pretty mobile centric thing. - That's odd, 'cause this affects all the veterans. - Well, but there were some pretty mobile centric. - John Kilpatrick ankle, yeah, but I mean, but Admiral Davis is over the whole state, right? Yes, do we have an extra part of this? Yes, we do, but I mean, if you're a veteran in silicaga, right, or if I mean, you're in Birmingham, or if you're here. - Right, I'm just saying that it's the folks, it's a, you know, between Kilpatrick and the other gentleman you mentioned, those are the ones that seem to be the most upset about what's going on. You look at, you know, even the legislative leadership, just now has come out, but between the speaker, the pro tem senate and house chairman of the arms, or of the veterans committees, all of them saying, yes, we need new leadership at the VA, Mr. Davis needs to go, Admiral Davis needs to go. So I do think it's a pretty mobile centric objection to this. And the thing I would want to know, you know, when we're doing some reporting on this, I had a story Sunday just on the update of everything, but with this group coming up, and now the legislative leadership engaging, we'll have an update story probably ready this afternoon. But what I would be curious to hear, if you do have some of those folks on, is how they respond to all of the information that the governor in the finance office put out about some of these, you know, pretty frivolous requests, you know, that there were these 33 proposed grants, it went from 15 to 33, and they had some serious problems with them, talking about not following proper procedure, not being eligible for ARPA funds, some expenses saying, wait, way too much of this goes to staffing and administrative costs, not to actually care in mental health, some of them aren't related to mental health at all for veterans at all. So there were some serious questions that were raised about what the Department of Veterans Affairs put forward, and now, so if you have an objection, that's fine. Plenty of folks like Kent Davis, I like Kent Davis. So I would understand just kind of a visceral reaction to saying, well, I don't like that. It's the swamp, you know, all that kind of stuff, but what are your objections to what the governor's office and what the finance office said, hey, we can get in trouble if we submit stuff like this, there are rules that you haven't followed, and so that's, I hope that they understand all that. - It's interesting to me, I guess, being ignorant, truly ignorant of the details of what was offered compared to what could be, what are they saying, what a prudent, I don't know if that's a term they use, but a prudent person would expect her. Like, are these things that he should have known? Is this digging into semantics and going, oh, look, you didn't go to a and check the box? Yeah, that's what I'm trying to understand. If the things, should Admiral Davis have known that the things that they were following for were well beyond the pale? - Well, his general counsel should have known. That's their job. And that's who the letter is written to saying, can you provide us answers for all of these questions we have about these 33 grantees? And to my understanding that information wasn't provided, they just got upset about the disagreement with mental health and eventually thought an ethics complaint. So again, there's a lot, this is not the Ivy administration trying to railroad somebody who doesn't deserve it out of town. I like Kent Davis. It sounds like to me that Kent Davis got really pressured and pushed around by his board rather than just did all this himself. But he was the one that authored that ethics complaint that was just dismissed out of hand by the ethics movement. I mean, they said in writing that even if all this stuff was true, even if everything you wrote was true, none of it constitutes anything close to an actual violation of the ethics law. So it's okay to be upset by somebody that you like being shown the door, but there is a clear pattern here of disagreement, dispute and really conflict within state government, stuff that the governor and the finance office detailed pretty broadly. And so again, it's a story, we're covering it. I'm eager to see folks show up in Montgomery for this meeting. I'm not sure they have a proper appreciation for everything that has gone wrong with the Department of the Department of Veterans Affairs over the last year or so. - And I wanna dive into that more and I'll do my research too to be able to understand it. 'Cause there's a lot of things out there that make it, at least leave people scratching their head. You know, the idea that the money, you know, there's 7 million dollars that gets moved and it ends up going to the healthcare insurance agencies for the state, you could say, well, look, they were trying to get it there in the first place. That's why they put up this, you know, this bulwark here. 'Cause they wanted that money to go there not to-- - Based on what? - That's right, I don't know. That's why I'm trying to figure out though, if it actually ends up not going to the veterans thing, you could say, well, why was that? There was intent all along. There wouldn't have been no interagency agreement to use these funds for veterans' mental health services. That's the entire intent of the original agreement. But, you know, when you read all the documentation, it's pretty clear that the Department of Veterans Affairs did not do their due diligence, did not understand exactly how the law works, even though they were supposed to. And at the end of the day, when all those things were pointed out by the finance office to say, look, what gives? We can't use money for this. I mean, they were bringing up things like, "Hey, considering these are quotes, "considering the focus, staffing is excessive." Quote, "Week to non-existent, "next to veterans' mental health." And quote, "Can we buy ammunition with ARPA funds?" I mean, these are some of the questions that finance had. And so when those questions couldn't be answered, they essentially gave all the money back to, you know, all the money went back to mental health, and yeah, they used it the way they did. So yes, the intent was always there. I think that's pretty clear. I think there's frustration on the Iowa administration's part that a huge opportunity to use this money for a really great purpose was squandered because of bad administrative work on the Department of Veterans Affairs. And so that's the message that I got. I understand folks being upset, but I think we just need to see the whole picture. - No, and I mean, there's some due diligence say, you know, that I can do on my part as well to see what else is in there. But yeah, if there, it just-- - I'll email you the story, Sean. I'll email you the story that ran on Sunday, sometimes Sunday stuff, you know, with NFL. And it has all the documentation, you know, from finance, from mental health and the governor's office. I would, of course, all the statements and reaction from Kent Davis as well. But I would encourage you to read it and share it with your, yeah. Because it links to all the documentation. And they were like 12 pages of documentation of, you know, why did Joe submit this? This doesn't, you know, job and to do it with a week to go and all that. So there's, we'll see how the meeting goes. - Yeah, it'd be interesting. - Again, the governor pretty much controls this process. She doesn't, Kent Davis does not report directly to her. He reports to the board. - But she can leave him, right? Does he work at her? Okay, so she would just have to change people on the board? - That's the reason for the board meeting is that, now look, I think you could see some reforms in that regard. I think you might see a reconstituting of the Veterans Affairs Board. Because, you know, why doesn't it work like a normal cabinet agency? You know, why shouldn't the commander and chief, you know, why shouldn't this person be in the cabinet? You know, so that could come up during this whole boards and commissions restructuring that Senator Elliot and others are talking about. I wouldn't be surprised to see it come up. - Okay, well, we'll be launching, you're reporting tomorrow afternoon after the conclusion of that meeting. Now, speaking of back here, and well, I'd say back here at home, but with the very southwestern edges of AL2 here at home, just right into another district. - Very important, very important corner of the district. - Yeah, I would say there's some votes. You and I talked about this early on. Did anybody do a heat map of the number of votes of Mobile versus Montgomery pick the city limits and, you know, draw it out. What's inside AL2 in the two of them? - I haven't, but we're getting ready to do some polling, and I would be curious about how, you know, the process goes on that and I'll talk to the pollster about, you know, how they go out mapping it. I've seen a couple of polls. Most of them, well, one right leaning, one left leaning kind of, and they all show figures with a slight advantage, but nothing above the, you know, above 50%, nothing outside the margin of error. So I still think this is a pretty close rise. - Okay, so we just give me something, 'cause I can sit here and do cliche stuff, say, it's all about the turnout, Todd, and it's just whoever can get their people to put, you know, the same crap everybody says. Is there any like thing I can understand through your eyes with all your time, you know, in Montgomery and Washington, they can help me see what, I mean, what is, what's the point here? - Well, go back to redistricting. That's the easiest way to do it. - Go back to redistricting, and this is essentially the plan one that was submitted to the legislature, but they went with a different type of plan. So the courts basically ended up substituting this one in. Well, based on, I think it was the last 17 elections, the Democratic candidate would have, if this district was in place, the Democratic candidate would have won in 15 of those. So that tells you everything you didn't know. I mean, it was drawn, you know, ostensibly to give black voters an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice. In practice, that means elect a Democrat. And so something really special would have to happen. Again, 15 out of 17 times, if I told you football team, you know, the last 17 years, it only won two games. You probably wouldn't put your money on them, but so something pretty special has to happen, I think for Caroline Dobson to win. Now look, she's a different candidate that has been seen in that district for a while. They're both really young with young kids and things like that, but again, it's going to take something special. And it was, I would say that was about to happen. If Biden remains on the ticket, turnout could have been so depressed among Democrats and especially black voters that I think he really had an opportunity for Republicans. Not that same way with Kamala Harris. - Isn't that loud? - She brought him back. - Isn't that loud, I mean, and I get it. It's not like I'm low on, but y'all think about this. What Todd says is the truth here, that the way AL2 would go would be dependent on the person at the top of the ticket that is not running in AL2, you know? It's like, it seems like I would want them in a fantasy world to be detached from each other. I know I'm not naive, I know they're not, but. - Well, they are in midterms. That's what makes midterms so interesting. But people vote for president, people come out to vote for president, even in a state like Alabama, where it doesn't really matter. People don't really just, you know, jump out of their socks to come vote for Congress. That's why turnout in midterms is lower than in presidential. So it is important, you know, for these candidates to, you know, Shamari figures was gonna have a hard time convincing Democrats, oh, come on out, you gotta support me, we gotta take back Congress and things like that. I would have done okay. It would have been pretty close, but when people just are depressed by the person at the top of their ticket, pretty much know he's gonna lose, then yeah, it's just a buzzkill, all right? They don't have that now. She's reinvigorated at least the Democrats. And so, yeah, I think it's, you know, he has a lot of advantages, but it's not a foregone conclusion. She's doing really well, she's fundraised really well, and it will be a close race right to the end. How much balloon inflation or deflation will tomorrow night's debate take? Are they gonna make a difference, or can we sit here and say cynical, "Well, the concrete's dry." What about tomorrow night's debate? - No, I don't, I think what we're seeing right now, I like the metaphor about concrete drawing because I don't think it's dry at all, especially in those swing states. I mean, you had the Kamala, the Kamala bump, right? After she was put at the top of the ticket, maybe a little bit of convention stuff, but she had this remarkable honeymoon where she rose in the polls, even took the lead in some, I think that's over. You're seeing the New York Times poll come out a couple of days ago, trumps back on top. You're seeing those, that honeymoon really end. So I think this debate could be really decisive. It could either, if Trump has a just kind of normal night, regular night, and Kamala Harris reveals some of her ineptitude or lack of experience, whatever you want to say, or some of her bad habits, let's say. I think it could really impact those states, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, to the point where she backslides considerably. And so I do, I do think this is going to be a decisive debate. - All right, he's given me a reason, I was going to watch it anyways, but give him more reason to watch it tomorrow. Todd, remind folks about Alabama Daily News and this email we keep referencing. - Absolutely, aldailynews.com. That's where you can go read that story, by the way, what I'm talking about, we rehash everything. Yeah, enter your name and your email, you'll be on the list. And also, Capitol Journal's episodes are Friday night, it's 7.30, and Sunday at noon. - Good stuff, Todd, as always, I appreciate your time. Thanks for hopping on with us today. - All right, Sean, be good. - All right, there goes Todd Stacy, and we're coming right back. More of Midday Mobile. Next. (upbeat music) - This is Midday Mobile with Sean Sullivan on FM Talk 1065. - Right, 1255, FM Talk 1065, Midday Mobile. Thank you, Patty, Patty over, oh, I agree, in-person tickets as well. So if we need, just, Patty, and the rest of y'all, I put the email out, or the email, the text out to the folks of South Alabama Veterans Council, if any of the veterans need, the trip paid for, seems like a bunch of us are on to pay for it. Good deal, we'll get them up there. I mean, it is worth, you know, remember I said last week, that with the amount of smoke, there must be some fire somewhere, but what kind of fire is it? So Todd's delineating these mistakes that they made, but I'd love to hear from Admiral Davis, hopefully we can get him on the show at some point. Were these things that you were ignorant of, right? That like, oh, if you put this proposal in like this, then it doesn't work. I mean, I think there is, like I think of most things, I think there's got to be two sides to this story, and there's got to be some nuance to it, but I think that's what Occam's razor would tell you, but we'll figure it out. Jerry and Fort Morgan said another example, how bad Todd Stacey really is. I wouldn't give you a fistful of monkey blank for him, a two more for him or two more just like his, sorry, but I'm gonna put you down as undecided. Do you don't like Todd? I like Todd, Todd, Todd, he and I agree on some things, disagree on some things, it's cool, it's all right. Paul, have you seen Vivek's warning if Trump has a decisive victory in debate, they aren't gonna let go of power easily without chaos? I don't, I think Vivek is an interesting guy to talk, to listen to, I'd love to talk with him, but to listen to talk, I think he's the next generation. Right, where do you go? You got JD Vance, you got Vivek, you've got that youth, I mean, would say actually out of that group, DeSantis, is probably the older of that wave of Republicans out there. I think we hadn't heard the last from Vivek. We'll see on the debate, I think it's gonna work here with having the mics muted, like it did during the debate with Biden. I think that is a great thing for Trump, because that's like, that's that judo stuff, right? Instead of having to go attack them, just let them attack themselves, let them, you know, James Bond, we go, you know, he'd tell you, I'm judo, and the guy would go flying by him or something. So I think that's works for Trump tomorrow night. If he goes and they mute his mic, and Harris starts off on some narrative about whatever it is, about why price controls are good, or even though people say, oh, she's already got the questions and all that. There's, I don't know if she does, but if she does, still I think you give her two minutes on the mic there. I think it's to the benefit of Trump. Let's see here. Tim says, I see gas prices are down, so Kamala must be wanting your vote. Lord knows, Tim, it happens every cycle, Republicans, Democrats, that it's just like Jerome Powell talk about, well, maybe it's time now to drop interest rates. You know, these things, these things happen. Gas prices are down, and how they're gonna make the world seem more secure. Like, don't worry about the two hot wars going on that we could be sucked into around me. How they're gonna downplay that one for the Democrats? 'Cause I don't know if y'all didn't check your books. Who's been in power last three and a half years? If I check, if I check here, Google's, oh, the Democrats, okay. All right, now we're number two, a bid day mobile on the way. 3430106 for a call or a text. We'll talk to you shortly. (dramatic music) (upbeat music)