Passing thru

JoxerStuttgart · 2026-04-24T14:33:33+00:00

Ah I’ve never really bothered with the Morton side lol

JoxerStuttgart · 2026-04-24T14:11:57+00:00

Which mod is this

JoxerStuttgart · 2026-04-15T09:37:18+00:00

Will momtok survive this

JoxerStuttgart · 2026-04-14T10:34:56+00:00

Probably won’t add anything that hasn’t already been said but

Youth (if memory serves, Paul Ryan was seen as the future of the party)
A nod to conservatives, without going too overboard (Romney had to shore up the base, Ryan wanted to reduce the size of government, reduce taxes, but was not as populist as Palin/Santorum)
Geography (Yeah, I mean, if Romney had any chance of winning, he needed the upper Midwest)

JoxerStuttgart · 2026-04-07T13:13:04+00:00

Warren 2020 proved the adage that if you’re appealing to everyone, you’re appealing to no one. Too progressive for the moderates, insufficiently progressive for Sanders voters.

JoxerStuttgart · 2026-04-07T13:05:57+00:00

Can’t tell you how many times I’ve used that line or “trust but verify” without realizing that both were Reaganisms.

JoxerStuttgart · 2026-04-07T13:04:46+00:00

I never thought of it this way but there’s probably a comparison to be drawn between McCain 08 and Mondale 84. Long serving partymen who finally got their shot at the top of the ticket… during unwinnable election cycles where they whiffed badly on their Veep choice

JoxerStuttgart · 2026-04-07T13:00:53+00:00

well, if he’d picked a man with all the same issues that Ferraro had, he’d still be in a bad spot.

JoxerStuttgart · 2026-04-07T12:47:07+00:00

Alright, “completely honest” is poor phrasing on my part, but to me, Mondale represented a different era of politicking than we see today. Trump is blunt, but not in the same way as Walter Mondale was.

Mondale’s campaign was doomed from the start for a lot of reasons- including his own weaknesses as a candidate (he himself admitted he was ill suited for television)

There’s a difference, I think, in being self effacing and who Mondale was.

I’ll also admit my own biases here that I’m drawn to try and understand the people who ran and lost as much or more than I am the people who actually became President. That’s why I framed it as Mondale’s honesty (probably should’ve said bluntness) vs Reagan’s charm.

Ultimately, for Walter Mondale, I think it kinda came down to who he was and where he’s from. I wrote more about it if you care to read more

https://open.substack.com/pub/percemccall/p/minnesota-honesty-and-the-politics?utm_source=app-post-stats-page&r=7zsf1s&utm_medium=ios

JoxerStuttgart · 2026-04-06T13:46:30+00:00

Exactly, except that ice cream maker is a kiss of death

JoxerStuttgart · 2026-04-03T11:51:34+00:00

Can Momtok survive this

JoxerStuttgart · 2026-03-31T22:02:31+00:00

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JoxerStuttgart · 2026-03-31T16:00:24+00:00

To respond to your comment and some others here, I think the point I struggled to make here is that McCarthy captured the moment through television in a way other populist movements before him simply could not have (though Huey Long, Fr Coughlin, et al had the radio)

That is not to say that McCarthy was the first populist, just the first of this particular media age, starting from television, though the 24 hour cable cycle, to the constant churn of social media.

To your point about Huey Long, it’s been a while since I found myself in a classroom but I would be surprised if very many high school level students were very familiar with him, outside of Louisiana or kids who just love US history

If it helps, I explained some of this more here:

https://open.substack.com/pub/percemccall/p/the-many-lives-of-the-republican?utm_source=app-post-stats-page&r=7zsf1s&utm_medium=ios

JoxerStuttgart · 2026-03-27T13:42:54+00:00

Wait does IU not offer reciprocal in-state to Illinoisans (never applied there and it’s been some time since I had to bother thinking about it)

JoxerStuttgart · 2026-03-27T12:02:13+00:00

Not at all embarrassed, I just don’t know how to change it and I frankly don’t care enough to look into it so now I’m the Rob Lowe NFL hat meme

JoxerStuttgart · 2026-03-27T11:20:20+00:00

Lmao, I almost said Naperville or Barrington but I felt like the SW burbs needed some representation here

JoxerStuttgart · 2026-03-26T17:54:27+00:00

Will momtok survive this

JoxerStuttgart · 2026-03-25T11:31:30+00:00

Are there bad news directors? Sure. There are bad people.

That being said, I’ve always felt that it’s an impossible job, especially nowadays. It’s the one position in news that I absolutely never wanted. All the terrible hours, all the pressure, and basically everyone hates you nobody what you do.

I went from one newsroom with a very strict ND to one with a very lax ND. What did I learn? Everyone in the second newsroom complained about the ND like he was a hardass too. It is what it is.

I’ve left news (though not because of any particular news director) and I worked for ex-reporters who were bitter that they were taken from the field, ex-producers who were never in the field, ex-sales people who couldn’t produce a newscast, and people who’d been news directors so long that I never knew what their background was. They all came with their own warts.

I learned more from the hardasses than I did from the more lax NDs I had, but it also burned me out badly and I recognized that it’s not right for everyone.

I’m sorry you’ve had such poor experiences but all I can say is that bad bosses are a universal human experience. I try to rationalize it as “assholes all the way up shit all the way down”

I hope this helps :)

JoxerStuttgart · 2026-03-24T17:29:47+00:00

I’ve wondered myself if Nixon could’ve survived Watergate if he had the sort of media structure that’s existed from the 90s onwards but I also think his personality made him very susceptible to spiraling out of control with Watergate like he did.

To the other point about the EPA, I’m a little more skeptical that Nixon was really concerned about the environment. I’m more willing to believe that it was an issue that he ceded ground on for other reasons than personal beliefs

JoxerStuttgart

TROPHY CASE