09-24-26 Part One - The GOP Maintains Favorability

Red Eye Radio

The episode opens with personal reflections from Gary McNamara regarding the miracle of life following an echocardiogram. The discussion the

Key takeaways

• An NBC News poll shows Republicans hold a net favorability rating 8 points higher than Democrats.
• Gary McNamara describes the profound experience of watching his own heartbeat in real-time during an ultrasound.

Main topics

• Political Polling
• Economic Inflation

Notable quotes

The human body is a damn miracle.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a critique of the Democratic Party's social and

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:06) Now, it's Red Eye Radio. Gary McNamara and Eric Hurley talk about everything from politics to social issues and news of the day. Whether you're up late or you're just starting your day, welcome to the show. From the Relief Factor Studios, this is Red Eye Radio. Speaker 5 (0:25) All across America, we are Red Eye Radio. He is Eric Hurley and I'm Gary McNamara. Welcome. All right, two things, right? Two things to start off the show before we get to the meat and potatoes, high-carb content of the show. First off, I heard yesterday driving into work and, well, first, I saw this over the last couple of days on X. It was all over the place. You know, the worst songs of all time. And so, you know what the worst song was in that one particular poll? I mean, who knows how legitimate it is, whatever. I mean, Speaker 4 (1:03) it's all Speaker 5 (1:03) subjective. But the worst song was We Built This City, Starship. Speaker 4 (1:09) Oh, yeah. These were the worst songs to go number one. Oh, okay. Worst songs to go number one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I Speaker 5 (1:17) saw that Speaker 4 (1:19) meme, Speaker 5 (1:19) yeah. And so. Speaker 5 (1:23) driving into work and I hear a commercial using that song. It said, we built this for comfort. And it was, was it quilted northern, northern quilted toilet paper? Well, I'm not kidding you. I've burst out laughing. If you're Speaker 4 (1:42) going Speaker 5 (1:42) to build anything Speaker 4 (1:42) for comfort, that's going to be it, right? I Speaker 5 (1:44) know, I just burst out laughing. And the other thing is, I've done things in my life that I consider heart-stopping. All right. For example, when I went up with the Thunderbirds and, you know, in an F-16, Speaker 2 (1:58) you Speaker 5 (1:58) know, when I sat there and looked into the mouth of Mount St. Helens and hiked the mud flows, when I flipped and crashed the race car at Texas Motor Speedway, you know, some of the things I've done, you know, being in the international sailing race, crewing for them because I. Knew the best sailor in the world at that point, and he did business with the radio station that I worked at. All great stuff. Nothing compared to yesterday. I'm getting my echocardiogram, Speaker 4 (2:30) and, Speaker 5 (2:32) you know, they're doing it. They got the thing on your chest, the ultrasound, whatever. Yeah. I'm like, I wonder if I can see it. So I turned my head and it was right there. There's my heart beating. Yeah. Most amazing thing ever. Most amazing thing. And then they colorized it so you can see both chambers. You can see the non-oxygen blood, which they call blue blood, which really is not blue. But they put the color blue on it to show the difference. Speaker 4 (3:05) Right. Speaker 5 (3:05) And so I could see the blood flowing through my heart. Now, I'm watching this. not realizing it's in real time in my heart, and it took about, you know, and it's my heart. And it took me about 10 seconds, and I went, I actually said it. I went, oh, my God, that's my heart in real time. That's what's going on right now. Blew me away. Absolutely blew me away. And all I could think is life, intelligent design, all that stuff. Because you're just like. How the hell does that thing keep on going? Yeah. And it was really one of the most incredible moments of my life, watching your own heartbeat and the blood actually pump, you know, in and out of your heart. That was just mind-boggling to me. It just shows me how, you know, how precious all life is. That's what it actually did. I went, wow, my God, life is precious. Speaker 4 (3:59) Yeah. I remember seeing the first... a couple of ultrasounds of babies. Oh, Speaker 5 (4:06) I can imagine that. That has to be mind-blowing. And it Speaker 4 (4:09) wasn't somebody who I knew that was pregnant. I would just walk into strangers having these ultrasounds. I just thought I'd just walk into the room, check it out. He's creepy. And, well, you know, I thought, why not? Speaker 4 (4:24) Knock, knock. You almost did a Beavis Speaker 5 (4:27) there. It was sort of like a... That looks like a baby. Beavis would do something like that. And an ultrasound. Let's Speaker 4 (4:35) go see it. My son pulled his... So he's in the ultrasound. He takes his hand, which is down by his side. He's still in the womb. Takes his hand down by his side, pulls it up. It's pointed like a gun. I couldn't tell any of the liberal doctors this. Pointed like a gun and then puts it back in his holster. I still have that. I still have that ultrasound. And I thought, all right, he's going to have to be one of those trick shooters, you know, where you go to a, I don't know where you even go these days to see one. Probably at the Fort Worth Stock Show. Probably the only place he could go. But I thought to myself, that's going to have to be his. his career. He is a pretty good shot. But then, I mean, just throughout the years with grandchildren and from that point on, it was mostly like recordings. I wasn't actually in the room. And so then like watching when the twins were born. Actually, we were at a trade show downtown Dallas. My daughter goes into. labor and then i have to leave you have to stay behind and do some work there at the trade show i'll Speaker 5 (6:02) never Speaker 4 (6:02) forget that and it was that that was in uh august of uh 2006 they just turned uh 20 uh wow last month and so twins and they put them in the same glass bassinet facing each other Speaker 5 (6:20) as Speaker 4 (6:20) they wheeled them out of delivery down to uh the nursery and they were talking to each other They were already vocalizing. They both were vocalizing. Speaker 4 (6:35) And I think they were saying, this is the guy that has all the money. But I have the video from one of my old phones. Oh, gosh, no, they're liberals? Speaker 5 (6:46) Yeah, Speaker 4 (6:46) right. That guy up there filming us, he's the one with all the money. And I had this in one of my old phones, and it's one of the most amazing things that you'll see. But, yeah, you think of things like intelligent design and how things work. I've had, I don't know how many MRIs over the years. One MRI I had was head to toe, and it was over six hours long. And good thing that my left ear is almost deaf because that noise probably would have gotten to me, but it didn't for some reason. Maybe because I was in a heavy metal band and the noise I created in my band was worse than an MRI, quite frankly. But you look at the images that they pull, you know, with today's technology and what they can do and the tests that they can do. Well, watching them work with my dad last week. You know, it's amazing. And they were, all of the doctors were incredible because he's, you know, so far he has, he's not had any cognitive issues. And so he's aware of everything going on at the moment. He's aware of all of his meds that he has to take. And, you know, he's been battling cancer since November of 22. And all of these things, but it's, you know, he's like on it, but I'm freaking out over the technology, but also the ability of. The body to heal. I've had a lung collapse and then it heals. In my case, it healed itself. I mean, with help from doctors, but I mean, no surgery was required. The tissue healed. And thank goodness I'm a non-smoker. And they told me that repeatedly. But those things, when you look at that, how your body heals, how your body responds, even in later years. Speaker 4 (8:48) you think, my gosh. Was that a shot at me? Well, I mean. In later years? In much, much, much, much later years. No, but I mean, you think about that. Think about what you've put your body through, all of us, to varying degrees, whether it's injuries. You mentioned the things that you've done in terms of the adrenaline kick. For me, it was getting on a bull. It wasn't so much the adrenaline. as it was the earth coming up to meet my face so quickly. When you rode a bull. Yeah, when I rode a bull. I've Speaker 5 (9:22) never done that, and I will never do that. Speaker 4 (9:24) Well, I never should have done it. My buddy Eddie talked me into it. We trained for, it must have been, I don't know, an hour, a full hour. But, yeah, it was, you know, but you think about all the dumb things we've done over the years, but all the things. You do to the human body goes through even without any kind of like severe injury. But then, you know, you think about disease, whatever it might be, and injury and all of that and the ability to heal. When I was who was it? Somebody I think was one of the it was the wide right for San Francisco. And they said he's going to be out for 10 weeks for the 49ers. He's going to be out for 10 weeks because of surgery. 10 weeks. If you operate. You said the wide right? Yeah. Yeah. I think it was. Was he wide right or wide receiver? Wide receiver. Speaker 5 (10:18) Wide receiver. Wide receiver. Speaker 4 (10:19) Yeah. Wide right. I'm thinking of the Super Bowl. Speaker 5 (10:22) You thinking of the Bills in Norwood here? I'm thinking of the Bills in Norwood. Speaker 4 (10:27) Wide right. The wide receiver. And he's going to be out for 10 weeks. And I'm thinking 10 weeks for surgery. No, no, no. No, no. Ten weeks? And it's because, first of all, I thought about that Canadian story that we did, the waiting list in Canada. Speaker 5 (10:43) Well, Speaker 4 (10:43) athletes have their own medical system. These professional athletes have to Speaker 5 (10:48) have their own doctors, their own Speaker 4 (10:50) medical facility to take care of all of that because they need the players back on the field. Speaker 5 (10:56) What got to me was once I set up and I was talking to the... you know, the technicians that were just, that were great. And I just said, that was amazing. That's the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me in my life, watching my own heartbeat and watching the blood flow through it. And by the way, everything's fine. It was just routine scanning at my age. There was, you know, so just so people know. And I just said, and I'm just sitting here thinking, I almost died at birth. My lungs collapsed. Speaker 4 (11:27) My Speaker 5 (11:28) lungs collapsed when I was born and I had a hernia at the same time. They didn't think I was going to make it, you know, the first day that I was born. So seeing a heart pump and this Sunday I turned 71 to watch it and think about it and then tell them, you know, about my dad being 100 years and a heart pumping for 100 years and five months. And you just, the, the. Speaker 5 (11:55) How incredible that is, just life. I was almost lost for words. It was just a thing like, my God, the human body is a damn miracle. Really, when you think about it, it really, really is. So that was a, it was, like I said, it was one of the best days of my life yesterday, even before I, you know, even before they gave me the results. And of course, my cardiologist said, if there's anything wrong, we'll give you a call. So I'm out doing long work. I come back in. There's a call. And, you know, I'm reading the message. We need to talk to you right now. I'm like, oh, Speaker 4 (12:28) no, they said they're only going to call if there's a problem. Otherwise, I'll see them at the Speaker 5 (12:32) follow-up meeting. I call back. They go, oh, just wanted to let you know. Everything's fine. Yeah. You're fine. I'm like, Speaker 4 (12:39) oh, God. Speaker 5 (12:41) But that, like, minute there before, you know, when I was calling back, actually, I was still fine because I knew my heart was, I knew it was fine. But that was all good stuff. But we do have. With all the bad news you're hearing about Republicans and everything, we do have some good news. Speaker 4 (12:57) Yeah? Speaker 5 (12:58) Yep. Speaker 4 (12:58) Okay. Ready Speaker 5 (12:59) for this? Sure. We'll start with good news. All Speaker 4 (13:02) right. Speaker 5 (13:02) You guys are just all negative on everything. No, we just report what's going on. Speaker 4 (13:07) Yeah. Also, shut up. Speaker 5 (13:08) Yes. Speaker 5 (13:10) Even amid voter frustration over the economy and the Iran war, Republicans remain more popular than Democrats heading into Election Day, according to a new NBC poll. Speaker 5 (13:25) Republicans have a net favorability rating eight points higher than Democrats, according to the latest NBC News poll. The GOP is viewed favorably by 36 % and unfavorably by 49%, while Democrats fare even worse, 29 % favorable and 50 % unfavorable. Speaker 4 (13:50) Now, let's hope this is one time that NBC gets their poll right. Speaker 5 (13:53) By the way, that's seven points, not eight. Okay. I said eight. That's seven. With pollsters predicting President Donald Trump's party is in trouble, the poll raises an obvious question. Why aren't Democrats benefiting more from voter dissatisfaction? Jeff Horwit, a Democrat pollster. whose firm Hart Research Associates helped conduct the NBC News survey, acknowledged that the Democratic Party remains in a terrible position as a brand nationally. Well, I mean, it's because, you know, look, it's because the things that they believe are so insane. And that sits in the back of people's minds. People are worried about the economy. And that's the whole thing. That's why I can't predict this kind of election. Well, I don't really predict elections because each one is unique in its own way. Right. Because the economy is killing and its prices. And I saw Republicans out there yesterday. But the latest prediction for the GDP is 5.1%. Why aren't we talking about the great economic news? Because every time you bring it up, and you say the economy's doing great, people say mine isn't. So every time you bring up the good news, Biden did the same thing. But this is great and this is great, and we said it back then. The only thing that matters is prices. That's it. I don't even think the Iran war. would lose the Republicans in November if it wasn't for prices. Right. I don't think it would because I think most people understand about, you know, Iran. But it's the prices, prices, prices. On the Democrat side, it's insanity. For example, on the radical transgender movement yesterday, you know, the hearings that they had again. Speaker 5 (15:35) No Democrat showed. No. No questions. No witnesses. Nothing. They know they can't argue the point. It's the most misogynist thing I've ever seen in my lifetime covering politics from any political party. It's absolute hate for biological women. It's misogyny. It's women hatred. And they know they can't defend it, so they just don't show up. Speaker 4 (16:02) Right. Speaker 5 (16:04) And it's just, I mean, to me, it's just incredible. And then I think people understand also the identity politics, that they judge people by groups and not individuals. You see the things that they promote, destroying the Constitution, still defunding the police, defunding the military. And people look at it and go, my God, these people are nuts. Well, that's the problem. There's a great debate going on, even though we don't think the Republicans are doing great on the economy. Speaker 4 (16:33) Well, where's the where's these people Speaker 5 (16:35) are crazy? Would they actually