Today's Poll Question: Are Democrats having their own MAGA moment?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Get ready to vote on today's daily poll question at smerconish.com. But first, Michael explains it for you right here. Welcome to The Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM. For Independent Minds.

**Michael Smerconish** (0:14)
Hello, hello. Hi, gang. Today is Thursday, it's the 6th of August. Holy smokes. Yesterday, 27,330 weighed in on the poll question, pretty lopsided. Is the AI-driven economy a house of cards?
Why did I ask that question? Well, because of the Magnificent 7 and because of the market records that continue to be set, including one yesterday. Ray Dalio, the famed investor, the CEO of Bridgewater Associates, one of many Wall Street analysts who voiced concerns about the AI bubble's impending collapse. He went on a podcast, it's called The Diary of a CEO. He's a 76-year-old hedge fund magnet, I guess you could call it. He would say, quote, what they call a bubble is when the price goes up a lot and companies do very well and then it collapses. And that has implications for the economy and implications for the market, he said. 76.41% agreed. I was among the 23.59%, perhaps wishful thinking, but I laid out my logic yesterday. I don't think this is like the.com bubble in that I think the Magnificent Seven have created real products, tangible things that already you can use and they're drawing record profits from. So hope it doesn't happen, but I thought it was worthy of a question. Yesterday the NASDAQ slipped 0.8%, snapped a four-day rally. The S&P 500 retreated from a record to close down nearly 0.2%. However, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.5% to post yet another all-time record high. Poll question today, a little bit of nuance and mischief involved from my standpoint, which I'll explain, are Democrats having their own MAGA moment? Are Democrats having their own MAGA moment? I'll tell you something funny. I was voter number 104, and you know what happens, you go to smerconish.com, you register for the newsletter if you're not already registered. You don't have to be registered to vote, but we wish that you would.
And then, after you vote, the results pop up. And when I cast my 104 ballot, the vote became 50.96% to 49.04%.
So, 53-41 in terms of raw votes, neck and neck, couldn't be more close. I always like to tell you that because we'll see where it ends up. You know, when 30,000 have voted, will it still be a 50.96% to 49.04%? I don't know.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:54)
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**Michael Smerconish** (2:57)
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**Michael Smerconish** (4:09)
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**Michael Smerconish** (4:14)
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Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. The Daily Poll Question at smerconish.com. A non-scientific social political question designed to spark broader discussions about current issues. Get ready to cast your ballot. And leave a rating and review of this podcast on your favorite podcast app.

**Michael Smerconish** (4:34)
So Abdul El-Sayed ends up winning the Michigan Democratic Senate primary, although just by a whisker, just by a whisker, another real polling miss. I think the pollsters were off between 10 and 13 points. Local polling, they just don't have the resources. And maybe a hard question, a hard race on which to poll. I pulled from the New York Times today an analysis of where each drew strength. In other words, where did Haley Stevens draw her strength? Where did Abdul El-Sayed have a strong showing? And I said something yesterday in my conversation with Mark Halpern. I said to Mark, as I watched the election maps come in on Tuesday night, it was hard not to notice that Haley Stevens was doing very well among black voters. And it makes me wonder whether black voters are resistant, black voters who are Democrats are resistant to the rise of democratic socialism within the party. So here's the Times analysis. First of all, final result, 48.48 to 47.51. Pretty close race, right? Despite what the polling head said. El-Sayed ran up the score in counties with big college towns. Washtenaw, is that how it's pronounced? I think, Washtenaw County, home to Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan, he draws 61%.