Episode #2208- Hammer and Nigel Full Show

**Jason Nigel** (0:00)
Hammer and Nigel.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:01)
You believe these characters?

**Jason Nigel** (0:02)
They're weird of us.
My name is Nigel, Jason Hammer back. Ladies and gentlemen, back at Better Than Ever, Jason Hammer, my name is Nigel. And I don't know if you realize this or not, while you were gallivanting in Ireland, I did get invited to the Indiana Republican Convention in Fort Wayne. I declined because I painted my garage and I wanted to watch the paint dry. But Max Engeling, the Indiana Republican Secretary of State candidate for the Republicans. How about that? Out of nowhere, off the top rope.

**Jason Hammer** (0:40)
Thirty one days after Jim Banks said, Yeah, we're not going to win with Diego. Max, where's Max? Is he getting my coffee? Max, how would you like to be Secretary of State?
Okay. Sure. And that's basically how it happened.

**Jason Nigel** (0:58)
It really is.

**Jason Hammer** (0:59)
So it took five hours, two rounds of voting, but Engeling won the nomination to become the Republican Secretary of State candidate, defeating David Shelton, who came in second and the incumbent, the embattled, shall we say, Diego Morales coming in a distant third.

**Jason Nigel** (1:23)
Yeah, I love Diego's name, the Ethan Hatcher, your fill in while you were gone, gave him Diego Morales.

**Jason Hammer** (1:33)
Morales, I see what you did there.

**Jason Nigel** (1:36)
I get it.
But man, what a show of like it just goes to show that, you know, endorsements and name recognition and those things matter. And where did Engeling come from?

**Jason Hammer** (1:50)
Well, and not being embattled in scandal after scandal. Also matters.

**Jason Nigel** (1:55)
There's that.

**Jason Hammer** (1:56)
Had the media or, let's be honest, social media not found out all the shady things that Diego was allegedly doing, the Republicans would have had no problem running him again if they thought he was going to be the guy to beat Bo Bayh.
But the problem was, as they got closer and closer to go time, they finally looked at what we've been seeing for a long time. Yeah, that Diego was probably going to get beat by Bo Bayh, not because all of a sudden there's this great Democrat uprising in the state of Indiana, but Indiana will vote against somebody they think is a turd. John McCain lost Indiana as a presidential candidate.

**Jason Nigel** (2:40)
I forgot about that.

**Jason Hammer** (2:41)
Look, John McCain's a lot of things. One, dead. Two, war hero. I think that's safe to say despite what others would think. But number three, a horrible politician.
Horrible politician. And he happened to run into the Obama juggernaut. But still, you were a red Republican and you lost Indiana. You can't be a turd.

**Jason Nigel** (3:03)
I say Max Engeling won the nomination because in part, his last name rhymes with one of my favorite beers.

**Jason Hammer** (3:10)
Yengling.

**Jason Nigel** (3:11)
OK, see what I did there.

**Jason Hammer** (3:13)
I see what you did there. I've still got Guinness on my mind.

**Jason Nigel** (3:16)
I sure do.

**Jason Hammer** (3:17)
I see you got the shirt on.

**Jason Nigel** (3:20)
Wow.

**Jason Hammer** (3:21)
I'm telling you, I'm not even that much of a Guinness drinker, but I'm having withdrawals right now.

**Jason Nigel** (3:27)
Are you shaking a little bit? A little bit.

**Jason Hammer** (3:30)
We'll talk more about that coming up here in just a little bit.
But go back to the convention.
We had been talking for a number of months about who is the leader of the Indiana Republicans. Is it Mike Braun? You know, I know Micah Beckwith might want to be the leader, but I don't think it's him. Is it Todd Rakita? We've got our answer. After what took place on primary election night and after what took place in the last 31 days, Jim Banks is calling the shots here in Indiana. Senator Jim Banks is the one that right now is the leader of the Republican Party in Indiana. You may like Senator Banks, you may not like Senator Banks, but if we're calling balls and strikes here, he's the one right now in Indiana that's putting himself out there and trying to move the needle.

**Jason Nigel** (4:25)
So, as the Republican nominee for Secretary of State, Max Engeling, was he just considered some random dude before all this happened? I mean, I don't want to offend anybody.

**Jason Hammer** (4:35)
Right.

**Jason Nigel** (4:35)
I don't care if I offend anybody.

**Jason Hammer** (4:37)
No, you're fine. He was a dude. He was some dude that Jim Banks knew. And this goes to show you the power of Jim Banks in Indiana. He took some random guy and in 31 days, walked up to the Indiana Republican Convention. And it was like the end scene of an officer and a gentleman. Allison, Jim Banks picks up Max Engeling.