It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Welcome the next Vice President of the United States, Jim.
Wall being introduced by the current Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris. Good evening. I am Ben Parker, and I'm filling in for Dan Ray. Let's do a quick background check here before we get started, because some may not be aware of what I normally do here at w BZ, which is news in the afternoon from two until six o'clock. You can hear me every weekday afternoon here on WBZ. I occasionally fill in for Dan
Ray on night Side, another four hour shift. Thank you very much, and I have actually filled in on the radio for the person that I am about to introduce as my first guest tonight. I am kind of calling this this first hour, by the way, in case you're interested, the Ben Parker Rolodex Hour, because a couple of special guests are joining me who are inlight Rolodex by chance, and the first one comes to us via New York State, Albany,
New York. In fact, however, you will recognize this person not only from radio in Boston, but also television in Boston. He's written a book. He is a world renowned celebrity. Not right, it made that part up, but you do know who he is, Doug Goudi, otherwise known to some Bostonians as VB. Good evening, Sir.
Benjamin Parker, how are you, my friend?
I am very well, and of course a Massachusetts native you are, and you've shuffled off to well, not Buffalo, but halfway there, I guess, as you are doing mornings on wg Y, which I can say because it's also an iHeartRadio station, of which we are one as well, and you do a lot of political commentary there, and that's part of the reason that I wanted to get
you on tonight. But first of all, I want to kind of give you a chance to throw out your good will wishes to the Bostonians who perhaps miss you on the radio and television here.
Well, first of all, three letter radio stations are where it's at, as you a WBZ no. So we're doing WGY out of here, New York's first radio station, by the way, and we both celebrated our hundredth in the same year as you well recall, so a couple of legacy stations. That's number one, Number two I can't tell you, Parker, how many times somebody says to me or I get an email or a text or something that says, hey, I love hearing you do my pillow on WBZ.
Everybody's listening to BZ all over and everybody's.
Talking about it. So yes, indeed, get your MyPillow products and a great sale going on right now. But I love being on BZ with that because it's great to stay connected to the old home town.
Yeah, that's where people that's where people hear you on WBZ. What a great connection you have with the with the masses, so to speak, as they later.
I don't want to get you sidetracked here, Parker, in any way to give you an outsiders observation of Massachusetts.
Of course you can.
So I was there over the weekend my son had a hockey tournament, and a little south of the city, we were down and mostly in Rockland, a little bit in Dedham. But I was amazed at not one, not two, but three different overpasses on two separate highways. Did I see people standing over on the bridge like from Stem to Stern on the overpass with free Karen Reid signs and from a new Yorker's perspective. I've been reading, I've
been following the case a little bit. I understand it was national whatever, but I guess I didn't really understand just how big and how passionate people are about it there until I was there last weekend with the thing not even going on. And I've never seen that before, where people are up over overpasses with free whoever it is. We got a bunch of national cases here in New York sivin since i've I've never seen anything like that.
Maybe the people in New York on is good at making signs. Did you ever think about that?
I don't think that. Whatever it is, I was like, wow, look at how what I know. People are dug in and they're on whatever side they're on there and whatever. That's cool. But I've never seen people holding signs up while there wasn't a trial going on.
Yeah there is.
People are out on like a ninety five degree dead sun Saturday, sweating their butts off making sure that the message got out.
There is a court hearing on Friday in this particular case. And by the way, there's a couple of things about that. Well, one, there was a mistrial as everyone knows, and they're going to see if they're going to throw out the case or not throw out the case. The probably not anyway, so they'll go to trial again. So this will be going on and on and on. Here's the one thing that I find funny about the free Karen Read people
is she is free right now. And I always kind of say, you know, maybe that's the wrong verbage right now because she's not locked up. You know, when you say free somebody, they're usually locked up. She's not because she's awaiting another trial. But anyway, glad, that's what you picked up on when you came to Massachusetts.
That's fantastic.
I've never seen it before.
Ever, you may never see it again. Let's get to what we did have you on for tonight. Outside of the fact that you're a wonderful human being, I know you do a lot of the political talk when you do the morning show, and clearly the big political talk today, tomorrow and going forward will be that Kamala Harris has
now picked her running mate. There was a lot of speculation who it might be or it wouldn't be, and today Tim Walls, which, by the way, if you're a conservative organization I've got the great headline.
For you tomorrow, right, I'm waiting.
Yeah, Okay, here you go.
Democrats putting up walls not bad, you see, That's right, that's good, right. I mean, that's that's what you would use if you wanted to make the dem sound back anyway.
I digress. A lot of people don't know a lot about him.
In fact, there's a recent poll I'll guess to that number in a few minutes where where most people don't know who this guy is Minnesota's Governor's not exactly unless you're Jesse Ventura doesn't usually get a lot of play in the media. Should we know more about this guy? And what do we know? And what a you sensing by who Kamala picked?
Huh? All right, let's go through it one by one. I mean, first of all, a pretty safe pick, pretty don't want to ruffle too many feathers pick. I mean, Shapiro was going to be the governor Pennsylvania, was gonna be the one that said, Wow, she's gonna be a little bolder here, She's gonna take a leadership position. She's gonna say no, this is who I want, and I'm staying firm. She didn't do that, and then they threw him the bone today, Hey will you introduce us? Like,
oh wow, that's great. Nothing like getting the runner up and having to introduce the person who's got the gig you wanted. But he had to do that in Philly. The interesting thing about that, and I think it's much more interesting who wasn't pick than who was right now. But they quickly got a story out, or there is
a story out. Whether they got it out or not, I don't know, but that the story goes that she didn't pick Shapiro because they thought that Shapiro was a little too ambitious and he might try to outshine her. And I thought, well, that's funny, because first of all, she just was part of a thing to push the guy that was ahead of her out so that she
could get the nomination. That's number one, number two. It's an interesting story, except that there's another story out there that says they didn't pick him because he's Jewish and they had to play to the very very far left, pro Palestinian anti israel As Van Jones on CNN Today said, the very dark side, anti Semitic growing side of the Democratic Party, and it does look like That's what they did.
Everybody on the inside told anybody who would listen that Shapiro was the right choice, and they went with Walls. The guy is in a state that they don't have to worry about at all. When Pennsylvania's won, they very much have to worry about. So it's a little bit curious that way, but it safe. I mean, he's not He's not gonna get them into too much trouble. Is he very liberal? Of course he is. Was he, you know, very placating and very left during the riots in Minneapolis?
Of course he was. Did he put tampon's in high school boys' bathrooms? You read that a thousand times already since he got the nomination. I don't think that bothers the base of the Democratic Party, though, so I think there is a general rule happy with it. And again the bar is so low because all they keep thinking is we couldn't win with Biden Marris. At least theris Walls gives us a chance, yea.
And he probably does give them a chance. And we'll have to see how it plays out. And obviously the Trump and Van's campaign's already going after the pair. I want to play this we're gonna go to a break shortly. Vb At Doug Goudy joins us this evening to talk about the pick of Tim Walls as Kamala Harris's vice presidential running bay. But this is Walls. He's from Minnesota, or he lives in Minnesota. Now he came from Nebraska.
But here he is.
This is CUTT number sixty, and he is talking about basically where he came from.
Cut sixteen.
Minnesota's strength comes from our values, our commitment to working together, to seeing past our differences, to always being willing to lend a helping hand. Those are the same values I learned on the family farm and tried to instill in my students. I took it to Congress and of the state capitol, and now Vice President Harris and I are running to take those very values to the White House.
By the way, is anything more American than working on the farm. I was working on the farm. I mean, he came from a farm. He was a high school of coach and a teacher, and served in the military, which of course God bless him.
So it's just kind.
Of weird right out. I get my values from working on the farm. Just kind of strange, isn't it.
I mean, yeah, pretty soon he's going to have a sicker Minnesota accent than he already does. He's going to do that Fargo thing, you bet you and all that. But listen, he had the camouflage hat on during the alleged call from Kamala. You saw that story they put out to that he didn't answer the first time she called this morning because it said no caller, no caller ID so he didn't know who it was, so he
didn't answer it. Mmm. Sure, but he's just that folksy and just that regular that gosh darn it, I'm not going to answer that call because I don't know who it is. So she had to call a second time. Sure, and then he answered it for some reason, even though it said the same thing, which is kind of weird.
Right, didn't say no caller idea and it's say potential spam because maybe you know that that would scare somebody.
Right. Let me tell you. If the stories about Kamala are true and the reason why her staff quit the record pass because they don't like her, she wouldn't have called a third time. Shapiro would have got that call.
By the way, there was I think it was political who had the story they said, And when you talk about Shapiro, and obviously I've heard all the things that you've already mentioned, but that he said, I don't want to do this, he didn't want to be the vice president because of whatever the pressure, or he wanted to stay in Pennsylvania I think was actually the story. So that actually sounds like the best of all of them.
He's too excitable, he's Jewish, I mean, wanting to stay in his home state and do some good there.
I mean, I almost you almost want to pat him on the back.
If that's the truth, it would kind of run counter to the fact that the mayor of Philadelphia accidentally put out that congratulations video a week ago because they set it to run but put the wrong date in. Always nice when that happened, But somebody told them it was going to be him, And my guess is it probably was going to be him at that time, and so that happened. So if he really didn't want it, that seems your heart game pretty late, because he was lobbying
right up unto the end for it went. He was with her on Sunday, So like, when did he decide he didn't want to do it because there was no indication of that before.
And of course it was the celebration tonight. The rally was in a Penncyila, and so that was where everybody was thinking too that you know, if she's doing this event in Pennsylvania, if she's going to Pennsylvania, if she's gonna hang out in Pennsylvania, it's got to be someone from Pennsylvania. And then well, maybe she just didn't want to go to Minnesota for a rally.
That's possible.
I remember Amy Klobashar doing her launch for president in twenty twenty in Minnesota. Remember it was a driving blizzard in the snow was gathering on her coat and she looked like Jack Nicholson at the end of the shining. To use a dated reference, it was so cold and so ridiculous. That's probably put those off for like fifty years.
Now.
Let's not run the risk. Forget it. It could be snowing there.
Uh VB otherwise known as Doug Gotti's joining us here. He is hosting a morning show in Albany, New York at WGY, another three call letter radio station, and we'll continue with him talk about Kamala Harris's pick for vice president today, Tim Walls from Minnesota. We got an action packed night tonight, not that it's not usually action packed on night's side, but we'll continue along. End of course, we'll always take phone calls from you as well if we want to sneak a few in here, So don't
forget to pick up that telephone and dial. Well, you can just sit back and relax and listen to the show. Six one, seven, four, ten, thirty is always the way to join the conversation. It's Ben Parker in for Dan Ray on nightsott on WZ.
Now Bent to Dan Ray live from the Window World Light Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
I know a little something about that commitment to people. I was born in West Point, Nebraska. I lived in Butte, a small town of four hundred where community was a way alive. Growing up, I spent the summers working on the family farm.
There's Tim Wallas. He's the pick fify Kamala Harris to be her running mate as the vice presidential candidate for the Democrats. They held a rally today in Philadelphia. Getting a little bit excited, I gotta say and and VB. Doug Gouty is with us. You probably know his name from Boston Television and he works out of Albany in New York. Now also for an iheard radio station. I gotta say, because he's from Minnesota and obviously there's there's
people there. Is it safe to say this may be the biggest audience he's ever spoken in front of that one time.
Probably yeah, and something like coming close to it anyway, Yeah, he seems, by the way, has a long history of people on the ticket but not actually get to the finish line. So you go all the way back to Humphrey, but they've got a number. It's kind of like Massachusetts, like how many times are you gonna go back to this well and not have it pay off for you? But they've got it. They Minnesota and Massachusetts very similar.
If you remember all the way back in the Reagan election, Massachusetts was hanging in until the very end of eighty four and then finally went Reagan. Minnesota didn't have dung in there for Mondale, but those two states have a very similar political history when you look at it.
I'm not gonna lie. I mean, I don't know a ton about Tim Wallas. I mean I knew who he was before he got picked, and I know I mean a little bit about him, but I'm a historian of Kim Wall, so we'll learn a lot about him. The one thing I noticed in the rally today, and I don't know if this is him or him trying to be very excited. He had that the bubblehead thing going on. He was Bumpa's head up and down quite a bit,
and he seemed very as he should be. He's been picked to me with the vice president, right, but he seemed very excited. He was doing an awful lot of clap and smile and laughing, and he laughed at times when I didn't think it necessarily required it.
Tim and Kamala got that in common, don't they.
Yeah, nervous laughter. Maybe, I don't know. I was that was one of the things that I noticed. And of course you don't always know what someone's thinking when you're seeing that, but that was That was kind of what I thought, and I said, boy, he's really excited to be up on that stage, which he should be.
None of us know that much about him, but we have already heard. Oh, he was a high school teacher. He was a football coach, looks like a guy who probably ran a pep rally or two and stays mister positive through the halls. How are we doing, Timmy, we're going to get that grade in his class? You know that kind of stuff when you bump into the guys. So he gives off that vibe. The question is did
people grow tired of that very quickly? But apparently when he shakes hands with you, he goes, here's five good ones for you. Like and see a little of that goes a long way for me. If that guy's with me in the office, I'm like, oh, he's in there getting coffee. I think I'll wait because I can only do the If I was any better, they'd be two of me. I can only do so much of that.
That's me.
I don't know how that plays nationally.
Well, we'll see.
And of course politicians are known for when they go out of the stump right saying the same things over and over again anyway, so we'll see if Tim Walls tells the same dad jokes over and over again when he's son, he's out there on the stump, listen before we let you go, and I appreciate you joining me. We have a couple of people who I think want to say hello to you, because they probably don't want to say hello to me. So let's take a couple
quick phone calls. Here, We've got Bill and Dan versus. Bill, Welcome to the Night's side.
How are you good?
Good? I do know a little bit about well during the COVID deal. So I mean, you look at it, the guy. You want to say, the deep blue state, but there are some congressional districts. There's a few Republicans, particularly up north because it's changed over time. They have a lot of natural resources, the Iron Range up there, which Trump let him do some mining, but again Biden shut him down. Waltz is also in favor of that,
so he's decimated part of his state. They hold on the power because they adventure Palitan area in the Twin Cities, like a lot of blue states. But the two big things that it was probably a test for the guy was COVID, and to me, I think he failed and he was super locked down and destroyed a lot of businesses, and like a lot of deep blue run states, he was one of those real followers, Troupe believes. And the other one was the riots. I mean he did nothing
for a week. And basically, I mean a lot of small to medium businesses and decent people got burned out. They did nothing about it. I didn't see a lot of guys go to jail, So I don't know. I mean, it's fairful with the country stone to think that the country is going to go for that ticket. At least it's scary times, you know, now, well, I mean.
And you mentioned, you know, the things he did in Minnesota during it after the COVID pandemic. But he won reelection in twenty twenty two, which was smacked out in the middle pretty much by about eight points over a doctor, a physician, and a vaccine skeptic.
So I don't know.
Maybe the people in Minnesota clearly like him enough to elect them and then elect them again.
Well yeah, and that's fine, I mean that you look at it. I don't think it worked out too.
And this is.
Another thing that's happening too. If you look at the census of the overall in COVID sped this up, and of course with the boomers retiring, that also throws it in there. But the bluer areas are just getting bluwer. You know, people are segregating themselves. The ready areas are getting red of so you know it's hard to find these purple estates or down the middle. So you know, you got some people that think that great. But I mean, if you if you're looking at it from you know,
I'm a pro. You know, rise in timeh lifts all boats.
You know.
JFK had it right.
Too bad.
You won't find those guys anymore. Uh, you know type of guy and Dan knows me. I usually call up and that's fine. They re elected it, so they supported those policies. And if you look at it with the tax and the penalties and stuff, I mean, and they've had population loss, like a lot of the bluest states. Massachusetts is experience that. I think it's eleven hundred a week where every two weeks to look at the latest
thumbus whatever they've said out of the state house. Ye and uh so, uh you know that's basically the story. I mean, it's not like, you know, if you were looking at the top places for research development, what the latest things happened in job growth? What are they doing there or whatever? There's nothing in Minnesota other than may be some tourism sometimes to hear that you would point that and say, hey, you know that's a place that we want to you know what I mean, Emil aid
or see. You know it's just not damn.
Yeah, yeah, I'm in a little of along, Billie. Do you appreciate the call? Thanks for calling in. By the way, they have a great plowing industry in Minnesota.
I think so. I've heard Doug goutis with us.
You want to follow up on anything he said about Tim Walls.
Well, during COVID he did. Do you know in New York were get a big thing with Andrew Cromo. We're still trying to get a review of the COVID nursing home issue. Wall did the exact same thing and later said it wasn't a mistake to send nursing home patients back in after they'd had COVID at the hospital. You know, not pretty in any way, shape or form, for sure. But listen, Trump said this the other day when he was at the NABJ. He said, the vice presidency doesn't matter.
Nobody votes for the vice president. It doesn't affect any way, shape or form. There's a couple of days of excitement, people get all worked up, then it dies down and nobody cares that's true here. I mean, does anybody who is voting for either Vance or Walls. Nobody. So we do this and we'll get worked up about it, and we'll talk about it for a couple of days, and when they have their debate, we'll get worked up about
it and we'll talk about that too. But in the end, people are voting for either Trump or Harris, or really they're voting for Trump or not Trump. And that's how it's going to be. And these two guys are going to be just joining a long, long list of people that figured out what John nance Garner meant back in the nineteen thirties when he said the Vice bresident, he's not worth a bucket of warm wiz. Yeah, I mean that's been a fact our whole lives.
Before I say goodbye, let's get Jane and Shrewsbury on real quickly. Do you want to say hello to VB? Or do you have a comment about Walls?
I guess both?
Oh good, Well, go ahead and do both.
Well. I only know who VB is from the commercials for the Mipellar commercials.
Well he likes that then, but I don't.
Yeah, okay, then I'll tell you I'm a little bit upset because he's obviously conservative and you're talking about the Democrats, and he's not really going to say anything nice about the Democrats. So but I do have a couple of thoughts.
All right, I hate to rush you against it, Go ahead.
Tim Walls is from a conservative district and he served like six terms as in Congress in a red district. And when Trump is now saying the vice president doesn't matter, that's because JB. Vance isn't really striking it rich with everybody. And we have to think about Trump's age. You know, everyone's talking about Biden's age, but Trump, unfortunately is an old man also, so people are concerned about who's vice president.
So I guess I'm kind of disagreeing with everything. And also as far as laughing, Donald Trump never laughs unless he's making fun of somebody else. So who do you want to have a beer with? Someone who can actually laugh or somebody who's just mocking everybody.
I would have a beer with whoever's paying for the beer. That's who I want to have a peer with.
Well, you're not going to have a beer with Trump because he doesn't.
Yeah, I had to let Jane go because we are up against the clock and we have another guest coming on, who actually is is again from my rolodex and from your neck of the woods. So why don't you tune in on the iHeartRadio app and listen, vvloy listen.
It's a pleasure.
And I know because you came on, I owe you some some skybars or something, so we'll get them to.
I'm about a box, dude. I think they come twelve too. A box. Let's go step it up.
Half a box. I'll buy a box and take half of me. All right, my friend, Thanks Doug. All right, I'll see you later. All right, there's there's Doug Gotty. He's a VB and of course you may know him from his RKAO days or on Fox twenty five or from w g Y. Maybe you listen on the iHeart Radio app. He's part of the family. Big hug for him, thanks for joining us. He does a morning show in Albany,
New York. And we'll have another guest coming up as we'll continue to talk about this pick by Vice President Kamala Harris picking her vice presidential nominee who she wants to be the sidekick in twenty twenty four and on the ballot. And we'll have that continuing as we go along here on a evening with Ben Parker filling in for Dan Ray on Night Side.
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's News Radio.
We're back Ben Parker filling in for Dan Ray. I love to hear from you if you'd like to chime in and talk about the pick today. Tim Walls, the Minnesota governor chosen by Kamala Harris as the vice presidential running mate for her campaign. She officially yesterday got the number of votes needed from delegates in order to be the presidential nominee by the Democrats. So Kamala Harris officially
and we knew that anyway. Obviously from the Democratic side, there's lots of support for this pick, as you would expect. I mean, most diehard Democrats are going to vote for whoever Kamala Harris picked. And as VP pointed out when we spoke to him in the last half hour, people aren't voting generally for the vice presidential candidate, right, They're voting for the candidate for president. And oh, by the way,
here is the vice presidential candidate. So you know if you like if you like the p and running, then you'll like the person who's running with her.
That's kind of the philosophy. But you can always give us a call here at WBZ and.
Enjoy the conversation six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty. I did mention that I do the news in the afternoon here on w BZ, but I've also filled in for Dan Ray, and I've also filled in for Doug Douty at WGY in Albany. And that, by the way, is where I met our first guest. And there is a second guest, they should say, because Doug was our first guest. But there's a backstory to this, and I want to tell it.
First.
I told you this was Ben Parker's Rolodex hour. He's in my rolodex. That's how we got to this guy. But really, in all seriousness, last time I filled in for Doug in New York, I had on the show with me a state Senator from New York, Peter Oberacker, and I told him next time I filled in, Mah
he would have to be the co host. And then I didn't fill in again in Albany, and so here I am in Boston, and I said, you know what, I'm going to call Senator Obaacker and see if he wants to come in, because there's a couple of reasons why. So first of all, Senator Obraracker, I never back out on a promise.
And so here you are back with me again. Welcome to the show, Welcome to Boston.
Well, thank you. And Ben, I thought maybe I did something to run you out of Albany, but apparently now that's always.
A good thing.
Apparently I did something to run me out of Albany. That's that's that's what happened. You are You are a senator in New York State, senator, and I want people to understand that because one of the things that I find interesting about you, and not you, but you're your legislator, legislator,
is you're a lot like Massachusetts. You're you're a Republican, and you're in a democratically controlled state, and therefore it must make things a little harder for you to get any kind of traction unless it's something so uh unanimously approved by everybody.
Is that as a senator?
Uh, did you go home at night and hit your head against the wall and go ho, Am I going to crack this open.
What's going on?
You know?
Well, well number one, Ben, great, great to be back talking with you, and thank you for the chance to allow right on that. You know, my wife said to me one time then she says, you're really not not too smart. And because you are running for the state Senate in a democratically, you know, controlled state, so there may be some credence to that. But I'm also going to put it to you this way. You know, I was a business made up until actually December, which I
retired out of a company i'd started in December. And I have learned. I have learned to work with those who you wouldn't maybe normally go afterwards and have a beer with right or maybe sit down for dinner with because the ultimate goal is to is to try to get something completed in a positive way, in a positive fashion that that probably really kind of kind of puts
politics the atmosphere in Albany. I have worked across the aisle, tried to work across the isle with with with all of those, some better than others, but I was actually very happy with the number of bills that I was able to pass this last session in New York.
I want to ask you this, Senator before we get on to Vice President Harris's pick of Tim Walls today. You look at politics, you see it, and you've got the Democrats, and you've got the Republicans, and you've got a Democratic governor. And you look, you listen to the radio and watch TV. You see the atmosphere that we're living in here.
When you as a.
Lawmaker, it's got to make you, I don't know it is to make you sad, make you mad, make you crazy. I mean, something's got to give here so that we can get back to doing the business of all Americans, by all Americans, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
You know, you know, Ben, I have the fifty percent district which I represent, which is all over parts of seven counties, almost the size, almost the size of the state of Connecticut. And you know, being from a very rural background and rule upbringing, we have kind of like a country with them, if you will, and I'll equate it to this. There's an old saying up here where I'm from. It says, be sure to taste your words before you spit them out. And I wish we would
do more of that in Albany. It seems sometimes that you know, we're looking for the gotcha moment, We're looking for that little sharp you know, retort to a debate or something of that nature, when in reality you're right. We may disagree, and believe me, I do. I disagreemently with my colleagues from across the aisle, but I do
it respectfully. I do it respectfully, and I really think that that's something that we need to bring back to politics as a whole, is to remember that, yeah, I may not go have a beer with you, and I may not even you know, give you a birthday card, but by golly, we need to spind some commonality, some common ground to work out these issues for those that I represent in my district.
A house divided against itself cannot stand. Those are pretty famous.
Words, are we.
I mean, you look at I'm gonna have you step outside of New York a little bit. Look all across this great land of ours? Are we in danger of not standing? Because we are a house so divided against ourselves?
I think so, I really do, and you know I can maybe maybe I'll quit it to you this way too. I mean, if you've noticed with President Trump, I mean, he could basically say he could and he could basically say have a nice day, and you know, no problem. But if he was also you know, to say enjoy the next twenty four hours and not sound vaguely threatening. Do you see what I'm saying. I mean, it's kind of the way you can say something, you can put
it forth. It's not the way it's intended. But man, I'm telling you, lately, it seems like these scenes get twisted, these things get converted, These things get put through this meat grinder. And I'm a sausage maker, if you remember by trades, so I know that very well. But it gets put through that meat grinder, and it's there strictly to divide us. It is strictly there to divide us, not to unite us.
So now we have so now we have Tim Walls being picked by Kamala Harris to be her running bait uh and obviously some some grenades have already been launched in that direction by Republicans and some will be launched back. And we know Walls and Harris called Vance weird, and so we've got all this again, pseudo name calling, which is kind of what politics is to a degree, but
how I guess how do we go forward here? And I'll have you kind of twofold here, how do we go forward and stop having everybody just make you know, names, call names of each other. And what's your take on, uh Tim Walls because you mentioned, you know, you're in kind of farming country and here's a guy who comes from farming country.
Right right. Well, you know the interesting thing, you know, we we had had a very busy day by the way, in my Senate district, and so you know I heard late that uh who who the pick was for Kamalaw and uh, you know, I'll be honest with you, I didn't know much about him really to start with. I mean, I knew, you know, where he's from, and I knew some parts of it, like you know, like you just said,
the farmer. But basically what I've heard and what I've I've been able to determine is that I believe he's even farther extreme left than than she is. And it's just an interesting diconomy that uh Shapiro, you know, from from from Pennsylvania wasn't pick for it. All along, we've kind of been hearing that he was in the forefront in the forerunning for this, so I'll accredit this way. The chess board has been set right, the uh, the pieces are in play. It's unfortunate that this has turned
into these bombs throwing incidents back and forth. I would like to see us get back to being an adult, or we're more appropriately been, back to being a politician and the I have a friend of mine from Ireland, love him. His name is Marcus Mallan, and he says to me one day, he says, Peter, he says, if you want to be a great politician, you need to tell someone to go to hell and them look forward to the journey. And that's kind of where we're at.
We need to get back to ye. You know, even with Reagan, who are absolutely adored, he had a way of kind of in a tug and cheek kind of way to throw a little fun at or throw these little jabs at. But they were mostly done with humor, and there's none of that anymore. It's strictly venom, it's strictly pointed, and it's there to definitely divide us.
You know, a lot of people talk about a couple of people you mentioned Reagan, but one of our locals from around here. Tip O'Neil, who was the speaker for so long, and he had a way and during the Reagan era too, with being able to reach across the aisle disagree without being disagreeable, which is a huge thing. And I don't know if there's maybe there needs to be a course for politicians where they learn how to be that way.
And I know plenty of people.
Look, I know plenty of people who don't like Reagan and like Tip O'Neil or vice versa.
But they understood that these two guys who.
Were basically sitting on the opposite side of the aisle throwing things, you know, at each other, their opponents, but at the same time they were able to sit down and go, Okay, how do we work this out? And I wish we could get there again.
There is, you know, then there is there is. I believe in my heart of hearts that if one requirement, one one requirement to be a legislator at any level is at some point in your life you have either tried or did run a business. Because I'm gonna tell you, guys, I go back to it. Business is always about, you know, trying to find that common ground right that commonality. Again, I may not particularly like this individual, but hey, you're
going to purchase my waar is you're gonna do this? Yeah? Okay, I benefit you benefit you know. That's the basis for everything. I believe that if we were all either businessmen and or women. I'm telling you, I think things would change in.
Our Peter Robacker is a senator from the Great State of New York or state Senator. I met here when I filled in on wg Y in Albany, New York, and I'm glad that he's joined us tonight. We're gonna have a few more minutes to talk to him, so we'll bring him back. We've got to take a break here nightside with Dan Ray. Dan is not here. I am Ben Parker. I normally do afternoon news here on WBZ from two to six in the afternoon. By all means,
feel free to tune in if you don't. And I should tell you that if you ever want to listen to us wherever you are not able to hear us on the radio, you can download the iHeartRadio app and there we will be coming right out of your device easy as that. We'll be right back. Stay with us Ben Parker filling in for Dan Ray on Nightside.
Now back to Dan Ray line from the Window World Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Dan Ray is not here by any windows or otherwise. He is on vacation on assignment. We'll say that sounds so much better. Ben Parker filling in for Dan Ray. We've got lots of stuff coming up later on tonight. We are going to talk to a local Olympic hero as we talk about the Olympics coming up at the ten o'clock hours, So stay with us for that. But we had a lot of stuff going on between now and then. And joining me this evening for about five
six minutes more is Peter Oberacker. He is a state senator out of the Great State of New York, and we used to talk when I was filling in for Doug Goudie on wg Y and Albany and made a point to reach out to him because I owed him another appearance. I told him we were going to have him on again, and then I didn't fill in again in Albany. And so thanks for joining us. I really do appreciate it, Senator, and I want to ask you this.
We're talking a little bit about general politics. But the pick today by Kamala Harris of Tim Walls.
As as vice presidential candidate.
Doug mentioned this, and I think there is obviously truth to this, that people vote for the presidential candidate, not usually so much for the vice president. It might help in a tie, but it really isn't the case. You have on one side the pick today of Tim Walls from Minnesota, and he is by all accounts a liberal, he's progressive, and of course he is matching up with Kamala Harris.
You have JD.
Vance on the other side, who by all accounts is pretty conservative, and he matches up with Donald Trump both if you look at him. They're both fairly young, I mean, younger than some of the antiquity, you know, the antiquated people we've had run for president in the past. So they're both relatively young. Walls is older, but they both served in the military. They both buy all accounts of the people who talk to them, they're fine people. Walls a coach to a sports and was a teacher and
the heck of a guy. And Vance's from all accounts a heck of a guy. Both like the hunt. I guess, so there's really there's nothing there that really outside of the politics of it that makes you go, well, he's a jerk, I don't want to vote for him, or he's a jerk, so I'm not going to vote for Kamalo or.
Whatever the case is.
So this this really is going to come down to politics with a little thin line in the middle of people who maybe don't like either or like both equally.
You know, Ben, that's probably the best analogy I've heard of what we have coming up in the extremely long time. Yeah, you know what's interesting, I've you know, spoke to my colleagues from across the Aisle uh and and granted, you know, we're we're in the chamber, we're debating, you know, we're going back and forth on policy, and you know they're point our point, back and forth. It goes to a vote. They have a super majority, so it goes through afterwards
in the hallways. You know, we'll sit back and my looking and I say, you know, you that that bill was terrible, right, I mean, and they're like, well, you know, it wasn't the best. And so again, you know, there's there's the theater of politics. There's the theater of politics, and then there's there's there's politics, you know in the hallway, if you will where those type of things this this you know by then if you really look at it like you just said, uh, Vance and and Walts are
our fairly similar except for their political ideology. Uh you know, maybe they maybe they would go out hunting together.
Who knows.
I mean I've met some really great people up here in my rural district, uh, going out to hunt and have something like that in common. We definitely got to try to get back to that. As I've said before, we got to get back to it where where where we are? So we're looking for that gotcha moment. We're looking for that uh you know, little little snippet, you know, the weird right, they're weird, you know kind of the thing. Now that's it's just it's unfortunate. Uh, it's where we're at.
You know, there was a there was a little saying, you know, people come up to you but refuse to descend a single step to them. I think we really would would be well served to get back to that type of mentality. And I'll be honest with you, I tried to do that. I try to live that. I try to bring that back to Albany in our Democratic majority state.
I wish I could keep you longer. We could probably solve all the world's problems by midnight to night. I think I bet.
You we could. No, I don't bet you.
I know we could.
Senator Oberacker, is always a pleasure to talk to you, and we will hopefully do it again. I don't want to promise you again because I promised last time. I'd run around like a chicken with my head cut off. But always a pleasure of my friend.
Same here and listen, you kept your promise, your aces with me.
All right. I can run for president someday. Then I keep my promises.
I'll be your running mate.
All right, my friend, you got it.
If I run for president, you're my running may All right, thanks, that's Senator Peter Obaracker of New York. I'm not running for president, so I don't have to stand by that promise. But nonetheless, Ben Parker filling it for Dan Ray. We've got a lot more to come. We'll bring you back after the top of the hour in the news right here on WBSD.