From Theatrics to Accountability: What the Harris-Trump Debate Means for Voters

0:00This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over 6 years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping next and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now. What's up guys? Welcome to Right About Now. It's our weekly business news of the week here on September 13th, 2024. 24. We hope everyone out there is doing wonderful wherever, whenever, however you're listening, hopefully watching on YouTube or Spotify. You got to see the outfits of the day.

0:44Everybody's looking sharp. We got Chris Hansen in Miami. What's up, brother? What's up, Brian? What's up, Brianna? And we have Brianna Hall looking cozy over there in her seat, in the hot seat. hot seat so how is everyone happy friday to the team here it's friday the 13th oh wow i didn't say that friday the 13th sidebar i really i don't get scared much anymore i don't know call it i just told i don't know you get older you either get you get wiser and dumber in some ways. There are probably a lot of things that should scare me that don't. But damn, those movies and Friday the 13th and Elm Street, I was pretty scared I would watch those movies.

1:36I don't really enjoy watching them anymore. I don't think I like getting scared like that. They say it's bad for your health. Did you guys watch this growing up? Yeah, I'm right there with you. I think I've just made it through enough Friday the 13th where I feel pretty safe now that I'm still here. The hockey mask is the guys that are coming out behind the corner. Oh, God. I'm still a little like I don't, you know, do certain things on Friday the 13th. I'm a little more careful on those days. I always thought Freddy was scarier. I don't know why. I mean, Jason could, like, you know, machete you to death or whatever.

2:10But the whole dream thing, you know, got to me. It was, like, right in the perfect time, like, I was a kid, you know, where you're starting to, like, realize you're dreaming and, like, you know, just that sort of awakening time period. I don't know how if I was 12 or like 15. I can't remember. But the thought that like somebody gets you in your drink, you're like, that's some scary shit. Because it's like your most vulnerable time. You're asleep in the bed and somebody's just chopping you down. It's like, ugh, you know. I feel like I got a fighting chance. If you try to get me when I'm awake, no matter where or when it is, I got a fighting scrappy chance, you know.

2:49But if I'm asleep, that's like your most vulnerable moment. You know? That's why my dog sleeps on my bed. There you go. Yeah. My wife would say that's why I sleep in the bed. The only dog in our bed is me. I got room for the dogs, you know? My feet already hang off the king. You know? It's like big boy's got to have room. Chris, where does your dog sleep? he's bad ground he moves around but yeah i wake up and he's in bed usually which i i love so or he's in his kingdom over there in the uh bathroom or is that where he's at now he's actually he's sitting on the couch next to me right now today he's getting a little son if you said his name right now will he look up at you and like know that you're talking about him yeah Chris always like don't want to start barking no we don't need that mid mid episode breakfast ball clanking that was always what we first started doing and Chris was going on inevitably every week clank clank clank clank yeah he doesn't eat and then the minute we hit record you just hear metal clanking in the bowl it's like dude you had two hours for this.

4:11So, well, you know, I, we've had a few weeks where, you know, it seems like it's been all politics. And then, you know, we took a little bit of a pause last week, getting back down to business. And then the debate happened this week. And so, you know, it's just too relevant to what's topical today and its impact on business and everything else. And, you know, part of me, like gets exasperated thinking about talking about it. Like, it's kind of like, all right, we're going to talk about it. And I mean, we obviously all have opinions on it, which we'll share, but it's just, I don't know. There's something broken about the whole system.

4:57It just makes me tired, you know, and I I'm passionate about like my beliefs and the policies that I believe in, but man, it just gets exhausting. And I think there's a lot of insights from the debate, but then there's like the reality. Cause I was thinking about this as we came on, like, cause looking at some of the other articles we're talking about and then looking at like the real data, like, okay, the inflation, the stock market, like, you know, we could talk about the way these two candidates talk back and forth, but what is really actually still happening or not happening with the economic data and all that, which so we'll come back to that.

5:36That's going to be sort of my wrap up point. But it looks like from what I can tell, and I don't ever know because it's so biased, the news and depending on who's doing the polling. But it looks like the polls suggest that Harris won the debate, the polls. I'm not making that proclamation. I just think it's relevant, I think, sort of to some of the points that I will make, it doesn't surprise me. I think my biggest takeaways, and I look forward to you guys, we'll have a little convo debate about this, but like multiple, it's been our favorite things to say this week, Brianna, you know, two things can be true at once.

6:24I can think that going into it objectively, which I really tried to do. Like, again, I've voiced my opinions on the show, my policy beliefs and all that. So which may or may not hash themselves out here again, depending on what soapbox I get on. But just being objective, like, okay, these two candidates talking their way through this, who's answering the questions, whose policies, who's like taking away like any bias that I could, I know that's impossible to do. I can admit that, but, but trying my best just to be an educated person watching two people debate about major issues. And so the first observation was just, it felt very, and we've talked about this before, like staged and theatric from Kamala.

7:16And I could, I did, I don't want to take credit for this thought because it got put in my head today when I read it, but it was what I was, it was what I was thinking, but someone crystallized it better. And I'd love to give them attribution, but I've read so many little blips. I don't know who it was, but they said it felt like Kamala had gotten the questions three weeks earlier and memorized every answer. And I hadn't really framed it that way, but in hindsight, what I was feeling, which I felt like was a show and rehearsed. And I know that's what they do for these debates, but it just felt staged and rehearsed to say she was going to say what she was going to say no matter what those questions were.

8:01Like, did you go to church this morning? Well, you know, Pete, I grew up on the other side of California. And my wife or my mother, you know, worked for a woman that owned a small business. And it's like, wait, I asked you if you went to church. Like, it didn't matter what the question was. I mean, the very first question was, is the economy better? Four years later, three and a half years from where you took it to where it is now. No answer. Didn't answer it. Just her theatrical, pretty well spoken, better than I thought she would be. Like, again, it's not my taste. It's not my style. I see through a lot of it because I think I'm a cynical person.

8:46And like whether they're Republican or Democrat, I kind of see the bullshit from a mile away. But she delivered it in a memorized format like she was in a play, you know, like it and it had nothing to do with answering the question. And I just felt like I was watching a performance. And the whole time with her. And that was my observation. and she didn't, and was, and I felt like in the moment, I didn't feel like ABC, because I felt like they asked her the right questions. I was like, oh, hey, we're getting, we're gonna get right to it. They asked the right first question. They canceled it. So, hey, they had me going off.

9:33Oh, this is gonna be objective. Like we're asking the right questions. They asked her about her flip flops. They asked her all the right questions, but she was not held and did not answer them one bit most of the time. And look, that's how debates go. That's not unique necessarily. And did Trump absolutely have moments of that too? Abso-fucking-lutely. But it was not to the degree with which she not answered almost everything. And so I think she delivered a better performance if this was a show, but without really telling us any more about what she truly stands for, what she's made better, why in three and a half years nothing's improved, and what would really change other than a lot of buzzwords and theatrics that didn't hold a lot.

10:34And I'll pause there to get you guys feedback on that and to get your takeaway. I just want to also mention, I didn't think it was a great debate for Trump. I don't, you know, I can understand maybe why the polling of people, the emotional reactions, the theatrical things probably went over well with her crowd and somewhere in the middle with people that were on the fence. But I didn't think it was wonderful for him. But it still felt like someone that was performing versus a non-politician speaking direct and if not even if not always the most eloquently uh which has never been his you know best fourth suit you know his best attribute so more to speak on that but what do you guys think what were your kind of overall thoughts chris go ahead i agree with you i i felt it was stale it was just not there was not a lot of juice to it from either side and i don't know i'm sitting here thinking are we all just getting desensitized to the theatrics of what politics is and has been because when you look back at former debates and even the you know the primaries and stuff it's all the same shit you know the same even and i agree i think she was totally prepared on questions but even it's like all right we know immigration's coming up we know you know equality all this these big hot buzzwords right but i didn't hear anything new you're just hearing her say the same talking points and he's kind of saying the same stuff too to be fair you know it's not like trump didn't blow me out of the water and he was acting different i feel too than his normal self and she seemed to be acting different than her normal self maybe so i think i feel like it left everyone wanting more but i also think whoever you support if you went in supporting that person you're still going to support them there was no strong swing points or debates that you're like oh wow great point you know yeah which means it was a lost opportunity for trump yeah to me yeah that thing uh in that regard because of her lack of substance you know like if she had been very substantive and like in her responses and answering those questions then she could then her her miss was she could have potentially won in a landslide but the but we know that the reason she's not it's because she's performing and she wants to give herself the ability to not lock in on anything so she can once she is or if she were to get elected she can flop either way she wants you know i think i'm somewhat convinced now that's what she's realizing that she can perform her way to the presidency and not over commit on the policies because then it will allow her to be what her record shows her sort of to be which is a flip flopper you know on whatever is important so and she was called out on some of those last night you know like gun control being one example i remember so i think you're right on that it was a very emotional performance you know if you're just stuck in your feelings and yeah if you're grading who gave the better performance like for sure who was the better performative actor last night yes she won the tony award whatever whatever even a rip on her that's just who politicians are she had a great time of being a politician last night she was a great politician last night And that and$2 will help you buy that loaf of bread you need.

14:27You know, so. Yeah. I thought it was really interesting. You know, we had talked about her lack of policy before going on her campaign website as recently as last week. And there not being any policy for her to bring back, bring up the I am going to create an opportunity economy was very interesting to me. Because what does that mean? and why haven't we done it for the last three and a half years? And Trump kind of hit that on the head in his closing arguments, but it needed to be brought up sooner. It's like she's been the second most powerful person in the world, arguably. You can say the vice president is it, but let's just give the U.S.

15:07some credit. We're all Americans. Whether it's true or not, we believe it. and so she's sitting there with a president that's now you know seeming two things she got let off the hook number one she's had three and a half years to do it and number two they've been lying to her face that biden was competent enough to lead and that didn't get held to her hey kamala was joe capable or like did he really go downhill in three months or, you know, or were you lying when you said he was competent a year ago? Because all the data, all the video says he was incompetent way before they decided to throw him to the wolves.

15:52So she didn't even get asked that. They're not even going there. And so it just felt like a great performance. I mean, the opportunity economy. Yeah. I hope she can undo the last. She's going to undo the last three and a half years of the non-opportunity economy to enact this. I mean, I think the biggest way that, you know, she's going to try to sway people, especially the middle class, was her performance last night. It just really felt like she was trying to be relatable to everyone. She was trying to be relatable to people with two moms. She was trying to be relatable to small businesses. She was trying to be relatable to people who have suffered unspeakable things.

16:31She was trying to be relatable to people that are seeking, you know, abortion for women as health care. She was trying to be relatable to every different to fracking in Pennsylvania. She was trying to relate to them. She was trying to be relatable as a gun owner. And I was like, you are trying to relate to everybody. And it's kind of it doesn't feel genuine, felt really disingenuous. Did you guys feel like in the moment? I felt like the the moderators were asked again so I got swayed early I was like I kind of put it to the side okay they're not being biased because they're asking questions and then like halfway through I'm like wait a second they've they're asking questions but they're not forcing her to answer in the middle of it did you guys pick up on the on what felt like the bias of the fact checking and all that were you guys picking on up on that real time yeah yes yeah absolutely yeah And people I was talking to, same thing.

17:29People, I'm in a big group text and it essentially was brought up. Everyone's like, yeah, this seems very biased. Like leading question, kind of giving her a little bit more time or cutting him off or whatever. Or the way that they will be like, vice president, madam vice president, would you like to respond? But then they'd be like, okay, okay, sir. Like that's enough. Next question. Yeah. And again, I think I got sort of the wool pulled over my eyes a little bit because I was trying to pay attention to everything but the moderators, which is the way it's supposed to be in debates, you know? Like, because they were asking her the tough questions, like the first, right?

18:05I was like, hey, this is going to be good. And then she didn't answer it. The economy was better. I mean, she didn't answer it. She just introduced the theatricals. Like, I felt like we were watching. Like, this was a video game. You know, she won. You know, like, non-reality. If this was the metaverse of it's like, congratulations. But no, this is real life with real policies, with real, you know, things. Yeah. And Trump had his moments, but I think he got baited. She did a good job. Like, again, she's a lawyer. she won the theatrical performance of being a lawyer and saying a lot of nothing and baiting him into doing what he's prone to do sometimes.

18:58And I think it was in that regard, he wasn't as bad as he could have been or has been in the past with that. but it threw i think it threw him off or threw him into responses that he was more responsive reactive than proactive the kind of the whole time so again she won the political side of it but didn't win the policy side it's like that's what it comes back to it's like are we winning politics or we win in policy are we winning the economy or we win in the metaverse it's like if this is a game she may have gotten the the upper hand of the game but not the actual thing that matters it's kind of the way it was feeling and i just i don't know how you watch that no matter how again i'm sitting here telling you i you know as someone that will be voting for trump and is someone that believes in his policies way more.

20:03I'm sitting here telling you and acknowledging he didn't have his best performance. But I can also sit here and go, it just feels theatrical at all times. And at least last night, oh, well rehearsed. It's like, no wonder, I don't think she can get on camera. That's why she hadn't gone on camera. Like she needed, I would like to, someday there'll be a book, how many hours she spent. And she's got a photographic memory, then maybe not as much as I think. But if she doesn't, I bet you she had 50 hours of rehearsing those answers. You know, she's not going on camera, so that's all she's had to do.

20:45Because when you don't answer the questions, you can memorize whatever lines you want. I thought it was very interesting and I have a quote here but Harris said you're not running against Joe Biden you're running against me in terms of talking to Trump and that was one of her responses to something that he said and I thought that was really interesting because like we got the bait and switch with Kamala and Joe Biden so it was interesting to hear her say that considering like it does a little bit feel like Like, you know, we are running against Joe and Kamala, how they were four years ago, three and a half years ago.

21:24And then for her to just completely like it almost feels like she's disowned Biden completely now that she's the candidate. She's just like left him in the dust or the nursing home. They're trying to put distance definitely between the Biden administration. If she mentioned his name one time, I don't remember it, but, you know. Yeah, it was. Yeah, she did. She said that quote that you like. Oh, yeah, mentioning, like, yeah, like, you're running against me, not Joe Biden. But other than that, it doesn't really mention him. No, she didn't bring him up. It's like he didn't exist for the last three and a half years.

21:56Well, that's what I'm saying. She's dissoning herself for her own record. She's had a three and a half year trial at this. So, you know, did you like Trump's policies or do you like the last three and a half years? somewhat same because I mean I think Trump's progressed on a few things but there's a lot of similarities to what he enacted and when you know the economy was better I think no one man or woman is going to change all of this alone and that's sort of like the but the the punch line here which is back to okay no matter how the debate's going what's the economy doing what are the things that the sitting and acting presidential entity, which includes Kamala Harris, what are those policies creating right now?

22:52A lot of inflation that's not improving. Even as of yesterday, literally, they thought the inflation was going to be better than it was, and it's not. and it's still lingering. I was going to say record high inflation. And so I still think back. I watch these videos. You can see a lot of stuff. But like it was really impactful. Like it was probably a month ago, this African-American woman talking about not being able to afford the necessities that she always had and just being like the absurdity of how their community has voted and been swayed a certain way for the last 50 years. And it's never improved their quality, like rarely, if ever, and nothing more than today, it's done nothing for them.

23:45And how, you know, I'm just sitting here about to cry, like thinking, you know, feeling for this woman. And she's like, just talking about the realities of what the inflation has done. And it's just devastating people. and that's just where it crystallizes for me. It's just like whatever we're doing is not working and she could be in. The one thing Trump did said, he's like, go back to Washington right now. You can change it. Go, don't wait. You have influence right now, but they're not and she doesn't know how. She doesn't know how to even act it, I don't think. It will all be puppeteered. so that's what it's becoming crystal clear that she will be the puppet for whatever it is if she gets elected you know because i don't think she's she has not demonstrated to me my opinion that she has the acumen to guide this country in those ways whether it's experience whether it's knowledge whether it's chutzpah, I don't know.

24:56But that's just what I see. And so then you're left going, well, kind of like now, who's running the country? Who's running the country? And I just don't believe somebody that can flip-flop so significantly on major policies can be trusted to be enacted in office and then not flip-flop once they're there. she would be the easiest candidate in history for any other candidate to destroy she like she's done things and displayed things that would have gotten many a candidate before her completely railroaded in the election but because we have a man that is extremely polarizing and people hate more than they like the other side is the only reason I think this is even close.

25:50Yeah, I agree. What do you think, Chris? Totally agree. It's, I don't think even the other side would probably argue with that. They know that she might be the right candidate against Trump because it doesn't take a whole lot of a candidate to beat a man that some people will just never be able to overlook his personality versus his policies. Yeah, I agree. And I think like she's really going to target the demographic of women with some of the more polarizing topics, you know, and it's hard for Trump to walk the same line that Kamala is walking because, you know, his conservative demographic, you know, has a strong belief system against the things that she's, you know, suggesting that we re-implement in the country.

26:42Yeah. But I think, Chris, you nailed it. Ultimately, I don't think we swayed, you know, a lot of voters from one side to the other. I think I think we're being more, at least I feel like I am, is someone that, you know, where I'm voting. I'm not trying to paint this brush like that Trump had the greatest, I'm not going to play politics. I'm just going to tell you what I think and what I believe, but I'm not going to play politics. Trump's best debate ever. That's just, come on. No, it wasn't. It was a great performance from Kamala, but I don't think it's, but it wasn't a performance that won over Trump voters.

27:28it would be real interesting if how many 50 50 people truly got off the line and went herder eggs i i don't know the answer that would be that's the most important stat but i just don't know how that if if you're gonna be and fight the line and i've got friends like this they're intelligent people and they fight the line of how can you be so dumb to support trump They play the he's a terrible human being card and all that stuff. It's all about his person. And some of which they aren't necessarily wrong. It's an opinion. But if they're so smart and so observant on that, why can't we be observant and obvious to the performative lack of substance on the other side that isn't solving real issues?

28:26The only issue being solved at hand is the winning of the game, but not the winning of the war. We want to win the war, baby. And when I say war, I'm talking about progress, great economy, the American way, all those things that matter. We don't need to win games. We need to win reality. and there's so many things about being american that are worth fighting for so i just hope that you know those listening and everybody that watched the debate you know looks at both sides you know with a not a telescope but a magnifying glass and you know goes to twitter and other fact-checking sites to be able to understand what was said um if it was true if it was exacerbated if it um you know it's going to have an impact on their vote yeah we will see more to come it'll be interesting if there's a second debate i don't think i don't know if i'm going to watch it it just kind of exhausted me i think we should put you guys in a debate ryan alford and chris hansen oh i don't think chris and i are too much alike and agree with the same thing we need we we could like tag team against another two people or something but Oh, man.

29:51What else we got? Well, we've got SpaceX launching. They launched on Monday of this week. I'm sorry, Tuesday of this week at 523 a.m. in Florida. I was hoping Chris would have seen it, but that's pretty early for him. It looks like they launched four private astronauts on the Polaris Dawn mission using a modified Crew Dragon capsule in the first ever private spacewalk testing out the new SpaceX spacesuits. That mission launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. How much do I have to pay for that? Is it a paid mission? A lot. You remember a Jeff Bezos rocket that looked like a big penis? it's like they went up like just past like the atmosphere i remember uh some of the memes i think we did with that whole campaign i think it actually they had me like inside it uh inside the rocket like with space hat on or something anyway uh if i was a billionaire uh would i want to go walk on the, you know, like space walking.

31:06I don't know. I would not do it. It's just like risk reward, you know, it would be novel, but I could go do the whole space walk thing. You know, like, you know, when you're going to, you go to the, what is it? NASA center or whatever you can, they remove gravity or whatever. I'm good in that, that little hyperbolic chamber or whatever that fuck that is. You know, like I'm good there, you know, like space walk a little bit, but I don't think I have to go get on a rocket with like you know more uh freaking nuclear bombs on board or whatever you want to call it rocket fuel that it takes to get there oh yeah yeah I think that I'm scarred watching when they put us as children when I was in the third grade watching the challenger on the television screen rolled into this classroom and it blows up 20 seconds and they're like the teacher that was, I was like, all the kids in the room are going, what just happened?

32:03I'm like, I think that thing just blew up. And I'm not making fun of it. I mean, it's just traumatic as a child. It's like, I don't want to get on that space rocket. This mission, it did suffer from delays. Delays related to a helium leak and some U.S. regulatory concerns over a failed booster recovery during an unrelated mission. So I would be a little tentative to go on this spacewalk. Yeah. There was a scientific focus. The crew on this mission were serving as test subjects for experiments that will provide data on how space conditions affect the human body, expanding on research conducted aboard the International Space Station.

32:45Quite interesting. Chris, do you want to go to space, brother? I'm just thinking I got a lot of things on my bucket list, a lot of vacations I'd rather go on before I'm going to space. There's some beaches I'd like to see maybe first. I mean, I've done skydiving and stuff like that. So part of me was like, yeah, I would do it, but it would have to be very special circumstances. It's definitely not, I'm not itching to go do that. It's freaky. Mine is like, thinking back to that Matt Damon movie where he gets stuck in all Mars. Wasn't that Matt Damon? That was a great movie. Yeah. Really good movie.

33:26I just don't think it turns out that well for me you're a pretty big guy to be in a space I'm like you know trying to you know use your own shit to grow like potatoes and all that other stuff like I mean I love that movie like I was like one of my favorite movies like Spaceman, Walkman whatever the hell that thing was but Mars Man great great movie love Matt Damon theatrical talking about performances that is it and but i don't want to get on that i just don't need any nuclear like what is it called the martian yeah the martian yeah i'd be the marshmallow

34:09that's what i'd be uh i just wouldn't go well i just don't like to like i'll press my luck i take risk but i'm just not i'm not going there and not not not yet i've got other things i could do like Chris, I'd rather be, let's go to Bali. You know, let's go, let's go get on an island somewhere. And, you know, I don't know, try some mushrooms or something. I don't know, but, uh, like, do some scuba diving. Let's do the opposite. Let's go underwater. Yeah. But not, but not, oh yeah. Snorkeling. Yes. But we're not getting on one of those submarines either. Trying to go 5 ,000 feet. Nope. Nope. Nope.

34:45Uh, that's got trauma written all over it too. but hey the business of going to space is going to be a big business so I think it will I think it's so novel that people are going to really you know be impacted by it there was a pretty notable quote here from the SpaceX launch director this is Frank Messina as you gaze towards the North Star remember that your courage lights up the map for future explorers we trust your skills your bravery, and your teamwork to carry out the mission ahead. I mean, that just hits. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. What else we got? Apple unveiling a new iPhone. iPhone 16.

35:31Man, this was disappointing. Like, I've been waiting. I have the iPhone 13 Pro. I've been holding out, you know. The changes I used to get, I was that guy every year. I also marketed cell phones, So I mostly got them for free back in the day. But even when I started having to pay for that shit, like I was that guy. Give me that new phone. Those features are better. Can't wait. That guy, they love me. They have like the customer, you know, new, new, whatever I'm in. Changes have slowed down so much. You know, it's only software changes, which don't get you that excited. And I didn't watch the video or the whole announcement.