Today's Poll Question: If Not England-Argentina, What Is the Greatest Sports Rivalry Ever?

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Get ready to vote on today's daily poll question at smerconish.com.

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But first, Michael explains it for you, right here.

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Welcome to The Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM.

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For Independent Minds.

**Michael Smerconish** (0:14)
Hello, hello. I think everybody's going to really enjoy today's poll question. I hope so. I know it'll be great, you know, barstool fodder, and people will say, well, you should have included this as an answer. I get it. I get it. And I'll explain in just a moment. It's already the 15th of July, which is a scary proposition for me. It means summer is half over, and I've got nothing to show for it.
Yesterday, 26,756 cast ballots at smerconish.com. Would a 2028 Democratic contender benefit from taking on the socialist wing now?
55.12% said yes, 44.88% said no. Yesterday, Holly Otterbein, a great guest on the program, said we relived the Sister Soulja moment. June of 92, Bill Clinton, he's already the presumptive Democratic nominee. He goes down to the Rainbow Coalition gathering, Jesse Jackson's group, and distances himself. Actually, that doesn't begin to sum it up. He draws a line in the sand between himself and rapper Sister Soulja. If black people kill people every day, why not have a week where we kill white people? That's what she said. Clinton said, you know, if you reverse the colors, you'd have David Duke giving a speech. It became the Sister Soulja moment. Meaning what? Meaning publicly repudiating an extreme element of your own base.
And that's what gave rise to yesterday's question. Should a Rahm Emanuel, should a Josh Shapiro, right now, take on the Democratic socialists within the Democratic Party? 55% yesterday said, yes, we'll continue to watch that. Yesterday as well, Spain. Did you watch? I watched. Completely stymied France. I must say, precision, execution. I'm not quite sure how else to describe the dismantling of France that I saw by Spain. Spain's going to be tough to beat. Tough to beat. My lead story today in the newsletter is about Spain upsetting France, headed now to the final on Sunday. And what does it mean today? It means, don't call me at 3 p.m. Eastern Time because I will be watching Argentina and England.
And is that sports' greatest rivalry? That's today's poll question.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:44)
This is the Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM.

**Michael Smerconish** (2:47)
So we're down to 3 now, we're down to 3 And today as I say, the big game 3 p.m. England and Argentina in Atlanta.
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**SPEAKER_1** (4:26)
The Daily Poll Question at smerconish.com, a non-scientific social political question designed to spark broader discussions about current issues.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:34)
Get ready to cast your ballot and leave a rating and review of this podcast on your favorite podcast app.

**Michael Smerconish** (4:40)
So The Wall Street Journal, and I noted early this morning, it's the most popular story at The Journal in a pretty busy news cycle, which I thought was really kind of neat.
The Wall Street Journal tries to assess the greatest sports rivalry of all time, and they say it's not the Yankees and the Red Sox, it's not Ohio State and Michigan. They say the greatest rivalry in all of sports is England versus Argentina. How come? Three reasons. One, scarcity. In more than 150 years, these two nations have met only five times in World Cup play. Today is number six. They've not faced each other in a competitive match in 24 years. They will not even schedule friendlies against one another. The last exhibition between them was in 2005 It had to be staged in Switzerland. Get it? Neutral ground like a hostage exchange.