The absentee ballots have been mailed with many Republican voters still making up their minds on their candidate to take on Gretchen Whitmer? Which Bill Lie, anti-choice, pro-Trump, tax-cut-promising candidate to choose? Did Wednesday's debate provide any clarification?

The debate did, though, give an hour of TV exposure to a series of factual misstatements, conspiracy theories and occasional intramural insults. Mark and Jeff offer their take on the debate (with condolences to moderator Rick Albin, a first-class journalist who was forced to keep silent when he heard b.s. flowing).

The podcast then moves onto providing an historical perspective to current politics with longtime state Capitol reporter and pundit John Lindstrom.

John’s tenure covering Michigan government and politics goes back 45 years, starting with the well-respected Gongwer Capitol Report in 1977. In 1986 he began a 6 year stint with Crain’s before returning to Gongwer in 1993 where he went from reporter to editor and then publisher. John has covered every Michigan governor since William Milliken and interviewed literally hundreds of state legislators, state department directors and Michigan members of Congress. He’s also covered the Michigan campaigns of dozens of presidential candidates, as well as a couple dozen ballot proposals. In short, he’s a walking Wikipedia of the last half-century of Michigan politics.

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This week's podcast is underwritten by Practical Political Consulting and EPIC-MRA. We thank them for supporting "A Republic, If You Can Keep It."