character. i guess there are some out there who could argue that the choosing of palin andy legitimate mizing that voice, legitimizing that grand of politics, that reality show brand of politics, you could draw a straight line from that to the election of donald trump. i wrote, katy, that i think that choice of sarah palin was probably the biggest political mistake that john mccain made in his career. i think what he was trying to do was to connect as an older establishment republican with the energy that he understood rightly was out there. there is an insurgency in the republican party. sarah palin was an early example of it, this kind of, you know, unprepared in the normal sense ex-governor of alaska. spoke out sharp, funny, and mccain wanted to have that as part of his presidential
a lot of republicans we talked to yesterday said we interpret this as a message. they re sending a message to republicans saying, its fine if you want to align yourself with president trump and his trade policies but they re trying to remind republicans there s a cost and the cost is their support in this case. the tennessee primaries tomorrow, you re writing about how marsha black burn who is wrapped herself in the trump flag could be in for a bigger fight than expected. she is facing a two term ex-governor. he s popular in the state. he s a pragmatist and he s not afraid to take shots at his own party. he s trying to de-emphasize the national side of this race. mars marsha blackburn is running a full on base strategy. it may work in places like north dakota and west virginia but is president going to campaign in colorado.
the five days leading up here, they were all inside a small room in the small building that s attached to the visitation center for the cave system. this is a restricted area, but they were in there lying on mats. we also know the family the authorities and the governor, ex-governor who was running this operation went to the families before this started to get permission from all of them to do it because this is an operation that could endanger their lives. they might not make it. they got permission from all the parents. parents have been very, very close to this thing. and i would have to believe the parents of the two boys that came out were right there and riding with them. that s my suspicion, and the rest are waiting with bated breath. you can about imagine. as a parent, i would be right
marsha blackburn has voted in line with the president 90% of the time. so what has changed in the past couple years since the 2016 election, or has anything? why is she not having an easier time here when it comes to the polling? she is not well enough liked. she is well-known. the ex-governor is very well liked. centrist democrat. voters in tennessee like him. the current governor is a republican but in the same mold. centrist, compromiser. bob corker in somebody as mayor of chattanooga, definitely a senator, demonstrated that he was a person who could bridge the gap and bring together both sides. tennessee is not alabama. tennessee acts more like georgia and virginia, where they prefer moderate more centrist kind of leadership. blackburn had to run to the right the get the nomination.
getting this involved in the mid terms? it s a good question. a lot of it depends on what the mood is in the particular states or particular districts. they re very different. the three that you mentioned, west virginia for example, he s still well liked in some of the places. so if you re joe manchin, that s a tough place to be campaigning. i love your thoughts on what the message is. if you are a democrat campaigning in a red state, and you re not there doing the job, you re just obstructing as president trump is blaming them for, what are you trying to get votes off of what you are doing. a lot of these red state democrats have voted for a lot of president s nominees. they have tried to vote with him when they felt like they could. and what is interesting, in west virginia for example, joe manchin is a popular ex-governor who is very moderate and going up against a republican field, there s three candidates in the primaries, we saw in the debate that we held on, to, none of whom