00:10:10.920And, of course, I can't be dizzy carrying around banjos, guitars, and such on five-inch heels.
00:10:18.280And you know that I'm going to be wearing them.
00:10:21.420Not to mention all those heavy rhinestone outfits, the big hair, my big personality.
00:10:28.760But I just want you to know also that a lot of you have been concerned about me and Carl, and you were so great about that.
00:10:36.180But after going through a year first, I mean, the holidays, and especially our wedding anniversary and the day of his death, March 3rd, you know, that was hard for me.
00:10:48.740But I will always love him, and I'll always miss him.
00:10:54.160But you would be surprised at how much your love and concern meant to me during that time.
00:10:59.720speaking of carl and my health i remember back years ago i was uh saying something i was griping
00:11:07.920about something hurting or this and that carl said now honey you got to remember you're not
00:11:13.640getting any younger i said well honey you've got to remember that as long as there are plastic
00:11:20.940surgeons in this world i'm not getting any older this this is an amazing statement made all the
00:11:29.480more amazing given that she died shortly thereafter. But think about all these constituent
00:11:34.260parts here. She opens up, I got a lot of good news. This is a woman who's dying, who's talking
00:11:38.700to her doctors who are clearly quite worried about her health. She goes, I got good news,
00:11:42.960a little bit of bad news. I'm honest with you, but I'm going to look on the bright side of things.
00:11:47.900This is a woman who is so over the top, and she jokes about it. She's self-aware about that.
00:11:54.220Some years ago, not that long ago, Dolly Parton dressed up like a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader.
00:11:58.300And on this show, I said, look, we talk a lot about how women should act their age.
00:12:03.200All people should act their age, and women should act their age, except for Dolly Parton.
00:12:08.160Dolly Parton is the exception to this rule and to basically every rule.
00:12:13.960She's an American original, and it's true.
00:12:17.340There's something deeply American about that as well, the idea that you acknowledge that
00:12:22.020rules exist, but you're going to look on the bright side and break them.
00:12:24.880America was born out of a revolution countries that are born out of revolution
00:12:29.820fail they're bad they cut themselves off from the past they're radical they're they're progressive
00:12:35.380and yet with America we going back to Edmund Burke during the American Revolution we find that America
00:12:40.540is a revolutionary country but a conservative country America is a country that is not a
00:12:46.460confessional state that establishes freedom of religion but is the most religious country in the
00:12:50.760West. America is a country that was founded by settling a brand new world, but America is one
00:12:57.060of the more traditional countries left in the world. America is extremely economic, focused on
00:13:04.580material prosperity. There's never been a country that is more materially prosperous, and yet we
00:13:10.020give so much to charity, and yet we focus so much on the spiritual things. So there are all these
00:13:13.860paradoxes to America, breaking the rules, but trying to also work in accord with these kind
00:13:19.680of deeper rules, these eternal principles. I don't think I'm reading too deeply into this,
00:13:24.380though it is a little bit of a temptation. That America is this country of artifice. We're the
00:13:29.480country of the great Gatsby. We're the country of fake it till you make it.
00:13:34.180And yet, we're honest about that. Dolly Parton, she's open about, yeah, as long as I can get some
00:13:40.360plastic surgery, I'm never getting any older. Donald Trump, he's so open about this. On the
00:13:46.680one hand, so much of his style is kind of opulent, garish in your face. And yet he expresses a
00:13:51.560humility about that. It was on me. You know, look, I'm a guy from Queens. You know, there's
00:13:56.340I've never had a drink. Imagine if I had a drink, I'd be the worst person ever. Only good thing you
00:14:00.200can say about me is I never had a drink. There's this, this extreme pride, this extreme humility.
00:14:05.000And Dolly represents that right down to the style of music. This is the most American kind of music.
00:14:09.960She's a country music singer. And I think what people are mourning with her at the deepest level
00:14:17.000is a sense that that America might just kind of be gone. Down to her, she's a class act on the
00:14:25.640one hand, she's totally brash, rhinestones and big hair on the other. There's this sense that,
00:14:31.340gosh, the past is a foreign country and maybe nostalgia is history after a few drinks,
00:14:37.660But whatever that was, whatever that thing is about America that Dolly Parton represents, I don't know that we're going to get another one of those.
00:20:30.620Darlene Graham's debate performance suggested that she is totally unqualified to be a senator.
00:20:36.240And Republican primary voters voted for her.
00:20:39.800simply because Trump endorsed her. That's what that was about. So that just tells you
00:20:47.180Trump is most likely, almost certainly, going to pick the nominee in 2028.
00:20:53.360I was trying to think, is there any argument for Darlene Graham? You always want to steel man
00:20:57.380the other side. And there actually is kind of an argument. And the argument for Darlene Graham
00:21:02.580is actually identical with the criticism of Darlene Graham as the senator. The criticism is
00:21:09.400This is a democracy, and these Senate seats should not be inherited from one family member to another.
00:21:16.480You've got to go earn it on your own individual merit.
00:21:18.920You have to show voters that you are competent and educated and informed, and this should not just be passed down generation to generation.
00:21:29.600Interestingly, though, of all the aspects of our government, the Senate was kind of intended to be the aristocratic part of the government.
00:21:39.400I know that now in our modern age, we say that America is a democracy,
00:30:54.800Two, Vance and Rubio don't disagree that much.
00:30:58.300You know, some people say J.D. Vance is talking about the common good, and therefore he's a socialist.
00:31:03.240Marco Rubio's the guy who coined the phrase common good capitalism.
00:31:06.980There's not a lot of daylight between Vance and Rubio on economics.
00:31:10.840Some people are saying Rubio is a neocon, Vance is an isolationist.
00:31:14.560I don't think either of those things are really true.
00:31:16.440And also, let's not forget, Rubio has effectively, multiple times now, endorsed Vance for the nomination.
00:31:24.340So I don't see those guys running against each other.
00:31:26.900In other words, the role that some Republican activists are trying, and some donors, and some factions of the party are trying to project onto Rubio, I think is probably better held by Senator Cruz.
00:31:42.440So we have the Calci markets right here.
00:31:44.120our great sponsor, Kalshi, as this question, who will run for the 2028 Republican presidential
00:31:48.780nomination? Who will run? We've got J.D. Vance at 82 cents. Yes, he's going to run. That's the
00:31:55.600clearest guy who's going to run. Duh, he's the vice president. Trump picked him to be the VP
00:32:00.060in the second term. He obviously is going to run, I think. But who's the number two guy who's the
00:32:06.460obvious to run? It's not Rubio. It's not DeSantis. It's not Massey. It's Ted Cruz, who right now,
00:32:13.180as of this morning, is it 71%? I think it is. It kind of keeps changing. You can buy it at 79%.
00:32:20.340DeSantis down there at 65%. Rubio down there, 62%. And Massey at 48%. Okay.
00:32:29.560I think Senator Cruz really has a lane here. Now, he has an immense uphill battle,
00:32:39.520But the uphill battle, I don't think is really about ideology or winning some debate or some
00:32:45.140argument or this. The uphill battle is Trump's dominance of the party. If Trump, if Iran goes
00:32:53.120to pot, if the economy goes to pot, if everything falls apart and Trump loses his grip on the GOP,
00:32:59.300then Vance is going to have a very hard time. Rubio is going to have a very hard time. Really,
00:33:04.360anybody in the administration is going to have a hard time. All of a sudden there, guys like
00:33:08.780Ted Cruz or Ron DeSantis are looking really good for the nomination if everything falls apart with
00:33:14.620Trump's hold on the party. And actually, things look better for Ted Cruz than they do for Ron
00:33:18.160DeSantis because the pitch for DeSantis in 24 was he's just like Trump, but a little better
00:33:23.600in various ways. That was the pitch. With Ted Cruz, that wasn't the pitch in 2016. With Ted
00:33:30.020Cruz, it was this is an alternative vision for the Republican Party and for the country.
00:33:33.780If you like Trump, vote for Trump. But if you don't like Trump, vote for me.
00:33:36.660And so there, I think the ideological lines make it a little clearer for Senator Cruz.
00:33:44.160I think he has a much better shot than Ron DeSantis.
00:33:48.260The issue for any non-administration campaign, or really anyone other than J.D. Vance right now,
00:33:54.540is the Darlene Graham race shows you, as of today, in August of 2026, Trump owns the GOP.
00:34:02.840So the primary is not primarily about convincing rank and file voters.
00:34:07.640The primary is about convincing Donald Trump to back you.
00:34:10.640And Trump has signaled that he'll back Vance.
00:34:12.660And he keeps saying, I want it to be a Vance-Rubio ticket.