Is this the most BRUTAL moment of the 2026 election?

If he was trying to lose this race, I'm not sure what he would do differently. That is just an perfectly executed political act. Welcome to a political act where we break down political ads and media, explaining what the people behind them are trying to accomplish, decide whether or not they did a good job. I'm Dan Piper, former communications director of Barack Obama, co-hosts of PodSafe America, and joining me today is the one and only Tommy Vittor. Tommy Vittor, welcome back to a political act. How are you? I'm good. My wake up time this morning was 4.40. I don't know if it was my children or my anxiety about the midterms, probably a combination of both. How about you? What was your wake up? Uh, 4.15 or so this morning. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. It's been. Yeah, we're in an anxious place. Yeah, I sleep with my Apple Watch on too. No, like track my sleep. Don't do that. It doesn't give me notifications, but I want to track my sleep and like know how much I wake up. And I basically beat it down where it gave me a good score, even though I only got five hours and 45 minutes of sleep for like the third night in a row. Oh, boy. Yes, not great. Okay, but we're gonna, we're gonna pass the time here by looking at some pretty fun ads. We're gonna start with this ad from Scott Colum from the Mississippi Center Race. A lot of price of beef continuing to go up. You know, you have so many proteins to choose from. Pick another protein. Shit, I'd rather pick another senator instead. Shit, I'm lost to damn minds. I'd rather pick another senator. What the? Pick another senator instead. All right, genuinely think of this ad. Like genuinely, first of all, pick another protein. That's fun to say. It feels like you're singing or you're rapping or something. It's great. I love that ad is genuinely funny. Dan, I saw the Mississippi Clarean Ledger had an article about this ad and how it went viral. It said they posted it on Facebook, x, and Instagram, and it racked up more than 2.8 million views in the first 36 hours. The Obama endorsement video got 700,000 views in the same time. So this thing really popped off. That's a rough, uh, that's rough for Obama. It was 700,000 views, pretty good. But it was just probably like him and a chair. Like they all looked like the other ones. But it was a great ad. It's funny. It's great. And apparently, Columns been touring the state with a pick your protein food truck. They're like really trying to drive this one home. And it like, this is a long shot race. Although there are Democrats many of whom you and I are friends with who are. I don't want to say optimistic about this race, but would not be, would not fall out of their chairs of somehow on election night. Scott column one. There is the case here is. This is. Sinny Heitzbeth is a terrible candidate. Scott Columns an excellent candidate. In the last time the Senate race went around, it was only about a nine point victory for the Republicans when Mike SV was running. And then most interestingly, and I think most importantly is Mississippi has. Either the or one of the highest percentage of voters who were black voters. And we saw after the Kale decision and Supreme Court where they gutted the Sprout and Rights Act redistricted all these black districts out of existence that turned out among black voters at least in the primary was through the roof in the South. And so if that, if everything broke the right way, that's the case here, then you saw Sky had turned it among black voters. Then there's a shot here. So things are really interesting and I appreciate a candidate who was having fun and in it to win and doing interesting high variance risky things because they know that just running the same old Democratic campaign is not going to win you a Senate seat in Mississippi in 2026. Yeah, it's fun. It's funny. It's viral. I didn't realize it. Sinny Heitzbeth was a Democrat until 2010 and then she switched parties. And Dan, do you remember in her 2018 race? I guess I'm gonna say I tell you that right now. Was that was that 18? 2018, I think it's SB. There was a video of her at a campaign stop. She was praising the person who had introduced her. And she said, this is a quote, "If he invited me to a public hanging I'd be on the front row." Her opponent, that cycle was black. Then there were surface pictures of her like at Confederate monuments and stuff. So she's just awful, awful candidate. Like no one, that's a, that's not a turn of phrase people use. Unfortunately it's such a tough state. Yeah, you and I both have a friends in Democratic politics who are really, you know, want the Democratic Party to be doing more in Mississippi. And I think that could both mean investing in the column race. But also I think there needs to be like some sort of decade-long or more project to canvas, register, talk to voters. Because I just think there's probably a lot of people there who feel like completely left behind by the political process generally. And it's not gonna be like a turnout operation that does it. It's gotta be some deeper than that. I mean, Mississippi is not Georgia. South Carolina is not Georgia. They are different democratically, particularly in the metro areas in the voters who the in-migration of college-educated liberals from other parts of the South or the parts of the country. But you could learn a lot. And if someone had a lot of money plays to invest, it would be to try to rerun the play the Stacey Abrams and everyone else did in Georgia. And all these other states with, like Mississippi, Alabama with large black populations. Like that's what you would do and just give you some stuff. But either way, great fucking ad. Great ad. So much fun. I'm glad we can contribute to the morality of this ad and run off the squirrel on the old boss here when it comes to views. If you like this video and you like about Save America, I promise you you'll love Message Box, which is my sub-stack newsletter, where I break down what's happening in politics, give you real analysis based on years of experience and data about what's happening in the midterms and actually help you understand where you can have the greatest impact, what campaigns matter, where to give money, how you can volunteer. If you want to sign up and I hope you do, the link is in the description. If you sign up now, you can get 20% off for a year. Pots of America breaking news is brought to you by Zippercruder. Let's be honest, Zippercruder is everywhere. Why? Because top talent is everywhere too. Just like you, your ideal candidates are tuning into business sports and podcasts, just like this one. When these candidates hear all these ads, it increases the chances of them going to Zippercruder and responding to your job posts. So ultimately, you meet them sooner. Of course, you can't meet them unless you go to zippercruder.com/cricod to try it for free. Once you post your job, Zippercruder's matching technology finds top talent quickly. And Zippercruder has a new feature that shows you the most interested, qualified candidates first, so you meet them faster. No wonder four out of five employers who post on Zippercruder get a quality candidate within the first day. But you've got to go to zippercruder.com/cricod to post your job for free. Again, that zippercruder.com/cricod. Oh, and if you forget where to go, don't worry. You'll hear another Zippercruder ad soon enough. All right, the next ad we're going to watch is from the very interesting Ohio governor's race. You're like a civilian heir, aren't you? And I'm like dirty, dirty rich. He's dirty! That's quite filthy. That's Vivek Ramaswamy, the same guy who wants to cut our health care. We're Medicare and Medicaid mistakes. I believe they work with the benefit of registered, particularly Medicaid. And with millions invested in data centers, he'll raise your energy bills, too. We have an AI data center boom in the state of Ohio, which is great. I'm all for it. I'm strongly in favor of it. Higher costs for us, millions for Ramaswamy. I know that Vivek is sort of, he's on your list of favorite people to beat up on the internet and he kind of drives you crazy. How much did you enjoy the spot? Oh, well, that is just a great ad. I mean, what a thing to say about yourself. I'm dirty rich. You moron. You're trying to run for office here in politics. What are you thinking? Yeah, I think I mentioned this on pop before, but I got to interview Vivek Ramaswamy on his campaign bus in Iowa back in the night. You did that. That's right. My takeaway was that he has a repellent personality. As I could not wait to get off that bus. He's just like a smarmy, arrogant prick. And I think it comes through in all of those clips. I also think like it comes through in the maga wing of the Republican Party. Like Steve Bannon doesn't like him. He called him a terrible candidate on his show, I think in August. Vivek got booed off the stage at this young Americans for liberty convention. Now, there is more than a little racism within the Republican Party, especially towards Indian Americans, which is obviously horrible. But that's not why I think that ad is so powerful. It's because Vivek Ramaswamy is a guy who flies his private plane around Ohio to campaign events and then wants to gut social services for poor people. It's just the worst kind of Republican. I mean, it's worth noting. It's actually somewhat shocking. Like, you can kind of understand if you have a sort of a cursory understanding of Ohio policy, national politics, why Sherrod Brown might be ahead by a few points because Trent Hewstead, Sherrod Brown's won there many times. Trent Hewstead is just kind of a generic Republican in the year you don't want to be a generic Republican, even in Ohio. What is quite shocking is that and also we know in federal racist voters will that's where they richer so they're protest against the incumbent party. Right, right. In the polling averages, Amy Actin is up on Vivek. That is quite shocking. Given just what it's been a very long time since we've had a Democratic governor of Ohio. So even when the competitive at the governor's race in Ohio be Ted Strickland way back in the day. And the just Vivek is a sort of perfect candidate to run against. This is an if we, if Democrats win this race is another one that goes on Trump's ledger because he is the one who want to affect to do this is sort of his consolation price for getting booted from Doge. Yeah, remember Vivek was so annoying that Elon Musk fired him from Doge before Doge existed. Like there's a world where people found the in a pairing with Elon Musk, Vivek was the more annoying person. Yeah, by a lot. To the point where we got sent back to Ohio. Did my So my only question in the spirit of the show and kind of, you know, well, evaluating the ads themselves, it's like part act one is rich guy, act two is like gutting social services, act three is data centers, is there an argument that it's doing too much or do you think all of those are? No, I think those are all of a piece. I think it works quite well. I'm like, you get like, we can sit here and nitpick the whether there's a way to make the ad more interesting and sort of less traditional ad. But filthy rich guy who wants to does not care whether you get to, you have healthcare or retirement security. And also the thing about data centers is that really folks who be here and the focus groups all the time is that there are all these people, these rich people getting richer off of AI. And so it's just like the fact that he's a filthy rich tech guy who wants data centers is just like fits exactly with how what they see is the problem with data centers. Yeah, chef's kiss. Also just the fact that there's also as reclines in the sad. It's like a perfectly man scape to beard. It's very fun. It's very jarring. Yeah, just think of all the just the vakes had such just like he's been a great candidate. The there was the viral video of him hitting a baseball in that engage. That's my favorite they had to take down. There was one you guys talked about on YouTube the other day. I think it was where he tried to pick up the child at the event and couldn't do it. Like don't pick up a 10 year old. That was such a weird thing to do. Also, like I have some sympathy for him having. Look, I don't know. My kids are still in the sleepy sleepy sack phase when they go to bed. And sometimes I will have to physically wrestle them into the sleepy sack. And I know when a kid goes limp, they're impossible to pick up. But that's why you don't pick up a 10 year old. But him trying to hit the baseball was so funny because there was a guy who was at the batting cage who later made a video out of it. And I think they picked the slowest pitch cage. She was like 40 mile an hour paid a cage. I think Vivek took 20 pitches, made contact five times. So they had to recycle his like terrible foulticks multiple times in the video. And it was just so embarrassing that they took it down. Now the version we put up included Elijah, you know, kind of like orgasmically groaning underneath this wings. You know, that is a real license, but. Listen, I was on this show couple months ago, and we were talking about. Candidates as content creators and we were looking at the, a duel, I said, blues clues video. And Liz was not a fan of it, but she said that when she worked for people to judge, she had three rules for any sort of internet digital stuff, which was no singing or dancing in the sports, which is like know yourself, right? Know yourself. Yeah. And Vivek obviously has known his whole life. He can't hit a baseball. Yes. So why are you doing it baseball? What are you, what are you thinking? You like tennis. You play a lot of tennis. You're apparently pretty good at tennis. Someone told them that that was like not man of the people enough. So yeah, he came off looking like a total phony. Um, my, yeah, we do a lot of, um, as you know, Dan get asked to do videos and things here for social. My personal rule is like, no acting. I'm not an actor. I don't know how to act. We shouldn't be delivering lines like you're just, we're not good at that. That is minus but all that. But, oh, there's only, well, maybe, love it can definitely do it. I think fat bro could fake it in a way, but now John cannot fake it. He just, he can't bring himself. He said he is a, I will say he is a historically talented script reader. Reader a writer. Reader. Both. But his, his ability to like read the 17 paragraph, uh, intro to the podcast at times without fumbling is. That's one thing. To deliver a line when you're acting means you have to do it without, um, self-consciousness. Yes. And I think that's where all of us are like this feels phony and it's wrong. And this is not what I do. And that's how he can do it. That type of they should have felt when he was swinging a baseball bass. Yes. Exactly. Not good. All right. The last ever we're going to look at is a slightly more serious one. It's coming from John Assoff. I think a lot. It pisses me off the way you asked me in my money now. I'm, I ain't getting it. I'm losing. This is a life of a trucker right here. The all day long, 10 hour, she's driving, traffic. The fuel tanks right here, this is 150 gallons on this side and there's 150 gallons on the other side, 300 gallons. I'd put, comfortably, 80 to 100,000 a year in diesel. Oh, it's going to be way more than out as ever since fuel prices shot up. It happens every time these war goes on, every time fuel goes up. Truck ain't shaking and ain't making. I voted for Trump every election. He sold us. He sold everybody. Nobody wants to listen to the people, people that work every day that makes this country real. And Senator John, he's, he's what Georgia needs. He's listening to the truck drivers, not myself, you know, just a middle class person. We just want somebody in office that, that will stand up for us. Less viral than the last two spots. What do you think of this one? That is just an perfectly executed political ad. Like if the, if the Scott column ad is a deep three pointer designed to like, you know, label, hide, smith is like a, out of touch anti beef weirdo. That is like the Princeton offense, backdoor cut, perfect bounce pass layup of a political ad. And John Ossoff should hire that guy for a month and just drive around the state with him because he's like that. That's very, very good. Yeah, I wanted to highlight this ad, be for two reasons. When you hit the first one, which is like a lot of times we will do the viral ads, the interesting ads, the funny ads. But sometimes it's just like, what are the good ads? What are the ones who do the right thing and the executed? Well, this one's very well executed. It is a classic concept. It's well done. It's obviously our documentary filmmaker king. John Ossoff has, you know, it's, it looks good. The, the guy is very compelling. But what it gets at strategically to me is like the most important thing down the stretch here, which is. And this is the thing that keeps me up at night is that in almost all of these races, particularly the ones in the red states. The undecided voters are almost 90% Trump voters in many cases three time Trump voters. And so that is the audience we are speaking to at the end. And you want to give people permission, create a permission structure and use a term, we use in politics way too much. For these people who have never voted for Democrats, who basically thought Democrats might have been the enemy of the people is recently as 2020. Or 2024 who thought Democrats might have stolen the election in 2020 to for it to be okay to not just stay home, which just gets us one vote. But to vote for Democrat, which net says two votes. And so I would like to see there's an absolute I'll say in version of this ad as well with someone who voted for mic Rogers 10 times, I believe. But we need more ads like this because these are people we have to speak to at the end. This is not I'm not going to kick off a should we be campaigning with Liz Cheney thing, but your target audience at the end here is. People who voted for Trump in these receipts, it may be a little different in Michigan and Maine and Minnesota and New Hampshire. But in these deeply red states, the last people left, the last people standing are dissatisfied Republicans who are not one of my Democrats and you've got to give them a path to get there. This ad is a great way of doing that. Yeah, no, no one wants to feel stupid. And no one wants to feel like ashamed of their vote. What if they're alone or they are alone, right, but you see this guy who looks mag, sounds mag, everything about him is mag, coded. And what he's saying to you is we relied to, you know, we were to see Trump did this to us. No one listens to us and the way you voice your displeasure is by voting for John Ossoff and by the way, he's a good guy. And there's just a distinction here between because these things get so twisted in the internet, factional debates about the Democratic Party is this is not tack to the middle to get these people. It is recognized for your audiences at the end and then give them a path consistent with what you stand forward who you are to get there, right. And this ad is a good way of doing that. Great ad. Well done. Tommy Vittor. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Always fun. That wraps up another episode of Poco Extra React. If you want to see more content like this, subscribe to this channel and I'll be back in your feed soon. [Music]