Now More Than Ever

Greg Bluestein is a political reporter who covers the governors' office and state politics, and contributes to The Political Insider blog for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's. Before working for the AJC, he was an AP Reporter based in Atlanta for 7 years. At The University of Georgia, he was the Editor in Chief of The Red and Black.

Greg Bluestein represents a little bit of The Road Not Traveled for both of your intrepid hosts, but more so for The Chairman.

As we discuss in the episode, both Dave and Greg possess degrees in Journalism from The Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications at The University of Georgia. They also both have an emphasis via said degree in "Newspapers."

Chris and Dave met on the staff of The McIntosh Trail newspaper in high school. Greg and Chris both have degrees in Political Science. Ironies abound.

Dave is a political consultant of some renown, Chris runs a successful on-site rental and logistics business, and Greg is a reporter – albeit one who hasn't picked up a pica stick, or had to read a story over the line in a phone booth to get it in for the evening edition in quite some time.

So the next time someone gets on their high horse about "Liberal Arts Degrees" not preparing students for "Real World Jobs" you can point them our way.

We are also all Sons of The South, though the term has undergone a change in meaning in recent years, graduates of The University of Georgia, passionate about the politics and the media of our changing region, and about the success and failure of our schools' football team. (TYLER SIMMONS WAS ONSIDES).

Greg's a tremendous guest, a go to for reporters and others who want to grok Georgia's changing politics, and an all around mensch!

You can find his latest work via the AJC website: https://www.ajc.com/staff/greg-bluestein/

Greg's Twitter: @bluestein

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Ondine Fortune is the Founder and President of Fortune Media, a media buying company based in California. She is a longtime media buyer, who has repped almost everyone in the game over the years. She is hilarious, effervescent, the life of most parties, and serious as a heart attack when it comes to business acumen.

She is a board member of The American Association of Political Consultants.

You can learn more about Ondine's work from her website: https://fortune-media.com/

You can learn more about The AAPC and their board members here: https://theaapc.org/about-us/board-of-directors/

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Gabe Sterling is a Damn Good Dawg. Some folks in the UGA diaspora shy away from that appellation, but in this case it is the truth. He represents The University of Georgia and The Pillars of The Arch as well as nearly anybody in the public eye – and certainly better than some of the elected officials who claim to be part of Dawg Nation.

Of course he's much more than that – Young Republican Extraordinaire, Political Consultant in his own right, former elected official, candidate for office, and spokesperson for Georgia's Secretary of State in a maelstrom created by the President of the party he's worked most of his adult life to build and maintain in Georgia.

When that whole controversy was at it's height – when Gabe was telling President Donald Trump to "Cut it out before somebody gets injured or killed" a lot of people would ask Dave what he knew about Gabe:

"Gabe Sterling is the type of guy you make the banker when you play Monopoly – because unlike the vast majority of people you know – he's not going to cheat and slide money out of the till when you're not looking." In other words, he's the type of umpire you want calling balls and strikes when everything is on the line." (The anti-Eric Gregg if you will?)

Most importantly, maybe, Gabe, like your erstwhile co- host The Chairman has said "Go Dawgs!" on CNN. As the man says "it's the little things."

Gabe's Twitter: @GabrielSterling

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Bryan Burrough has been writing books digging into big business, crime and American Scandal for over 30 years. After our chat about "Forget The Alamo" he was kind enough to stick around for 20 minutes or so and talk to us about his writing, movie adaptations, and some specifics about his books.

He is the author of 7 books:

"Barbarians at The Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco"

Vendetta: American Express and the Smearing of Edmond Safra

Dragonfly: NASA and the Crisis Aboard Mir (1998)

Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933–34 (2004)

The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes (2009)

Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence (2015)

Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth (2021, with Chris Tomlinson and Jason Stanford)

Two of his books have been turned into movies. "Barbarians At The Gate" was produced by HBO in 1993. The film won both the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie and the Golden Globe for Best Television Movie while James Garner won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Movie.

"Public Enemies" was distributed by Universal Pictures in 2009. Directed by Michael Mann, and starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Stephen Dorff and Stephen Graham. It grossed $214 Million at the box office.

Bryan's Twitter: @BryanBurrough

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Whether with his old firm and partners, Fletcher Rowley, or his "new" firm Counter Point Messaging, John Rowley has long been at the forefront of Democratic politics.

As we discuss, he has always made his living making ads for underdogs, state legislative candidates, and under the radar races – while often enjoying the lagniappe provided by a big, targeted Congressional, Senatorial or even Presidential campaign.

He's an advocate for his adopted hometown of Nashville, TN, a member of the American Association of Political Consultants and the President of The Southern Chapter.

John also gave The Chairman some of the best advice possible when he formed his company: "Anyone can have a good cycle, hang out a shingle, and get a bunch of clients. Most of them don't last 5 years. Do honest work for good clients, and you'll last."

You can learn more about John's actual work via his company's website: counterpointmessaging.com

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John is an inveterate pollster, autodidact and numbers guru nonpareil. You'd have to dig deep and wide to find someone who knows both the current and historic trends in states across this vast nation as good or better than he.

There are indeed many rooms in the mansion, and John occupies his own wing when it comes to political origin stories. He literally taught himself sampling and aggregation – all the standards skills needed to be a pollster, but a good pollster makes them appear to be alchemical.

He's one of our favorite types around these parts: A Self-Made Guy, proud of his accomplishments and hungry for more.

He's also one of the better resources which fall under the umbrella of #electiontwitter

You can learn more about John's work via his website: WinWithJMC.com

John's Twitter: @WinWithJMC

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Sasha Issenberg is the author of "The Engagement: America's Quarter Century Struggle Over Same-Sex Marriage" which has been called "Part Grisham-esque legal thriller, part Sorkin-esque political drama, and part Maddow-esque historical yarn" by O: The Oprah Magazine

Sasha Issenberg is the author of three previous books, including "The Victory Lab" which is about the evolving science of political campaigns' voter targeting and Get Out The Vote operations.

He covered the 2008 election as a national political reporter in the Washington bureau of The Boston Globe, the 2012 election for Slate, the 2016 election for Bloomberg Politics and Businessweek, and 2020 for The Recount. He is the Washington correspondent for Monocle, and has also written for New York magazine, The New York Times Magazine, and George, where he served as a contributing editor. He teaches in the political science department at UCLA

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Erik Potholm is a native of Maine, and a partner with SRCP Media, a Republican advertising firm based in Alexandria, VA.

His work has helped elected Senators, Governors, Congressman, and those who hold lower office across the country. He's also worked for countless referenda, initiatives and state constitutional amendments.

He's not the flashy media consultant of political lore, but rather he has the type of roll your sleeves up and get it done flinty Mainer work ethic that makes our country great – no matter what party you support.

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Jonathan Martin, National Political Correspondent for The New York Times joins us for a lively discussion about how just showing up is basically the key to success.

We talk about his experiences as a cub reporter for the National Journal, jumping to Politico, and ultimately to heading up national political correspondence for The Gray Lady.

Along the way, he channels his inner RW Apple, by always finding the place where the locals go to eat – including Doe's in Little Rock and Bud's in Montgomery, AL along with our intrepid host The Chairman.

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FORGET THE ALAMO? Not in this lifetime, Bubba! Ho, ho! Best selling authors Bryan Burrough and Jason Stanford join us this week to discuss their new lightning rod-cum-New York Times Notable book for the month of June "Forget The Alamo." Stanford and Burrough (along with third author Chris Tomlinson, who had a scheduling conflict) discuss the factors that led them to write their book, the differences between The Heroic Anglo Narrative and historical truths, and how The Alamo is shorthand for deep seated pain and racism for many of their Tejano brothers. The book is thoroughly sourced, well written, and thought provoking – if you read it, you'll be taken by many of their descriptions of the battle of the Alamo, and the brutality of life on The Frontier, and the making of Texas as an independent nation and as a state. It's a complicated story that has been simplified into something like a biblical parable – and no one ever gets mad about what's in The Bible do they? You can order the book HERE

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