Today's Poll Question: The next 'Sister Souljah Moment'...Should Democrats take on the Socialist wing?

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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** (0:13)
Hello, hello. Hi, gang. Today is Tuesday. It's the 14th of July. Wow, July, halfway over. Yikes.
Before I get to the poll question of the day, let me tell you this. So I'm looking at the draft. It's actually a spreadsheet. It's an Excel spreadsheet of today's newsletter on which I have populated the 10 stories that will comprise the newsletter in addition to the poll question, the editorial cartoons, the ground news, and my personal note. And as I look at the stories that I'm pulling from, a lot of them are what you would expect, right? I mean, from the South Carolina Daily Gazette, Lindsey Graham's sister is going to be sworn into the Senate in just a few hours. She'll fill his seat. Or from the Associated Press, the very latest on the US attacking and Iran retaliating across the Middle East. My lead story is Jordan Walker, stunning Kyle Schwaber in the home run derby last night in Philadelphia. I watched some of that. It just looked like a rollicking good time to be at Citizens Bank Park. Big match today, Spain and France. So from Yahoo News, we've got the World Cup power rankings. Amazing that the top four ranked teams are the four that are left. We'll see how it all goes down today and tomorrow. The Gord grandpa at Yellowstone. Yeah, I've got that. The ICE shooting in Maine. Sure, I have that.
So I think I'm right on the news. I mean, this is what I do for a living. I think I'm right in line with where I need to be in terms of drawing from disparate sources and giving people a good cross section of the news. But my favorite story and one that I think I'm going to spend time on on radio today was written by Adam Chandler in the Wall Street Journal and it's about Costco.
Costco is having a moment and Costco is what remains of the monoculture. You know, that one place where we can all go regardless of our political stripe and have something in common. It's everything that I talk about in the mingle project. Costco is a great place for mingling or as Noah Rinsky is quoted as saying in today's Wall Street Journal, Costco seems to me to be the kind of heartbeat of America culturally.
It seems to be one of the last places that across the aisle, we can all agree is good. I actually buried the lead. The lead says, even before a stream of wide-eyed World Cup visitors arrived in the US this summer to marvel at the square footage and enjoy the free samples, it's been a busy year in the Costco cinematic universe. And then it talks about some of the cool things that have happened there, including one intrepid Colorado Rockies fan brought an entire Costco rotisserie chicken to Coors Field to feast on inside the stadium. I like that. Mardi Gras season in full swing, a local brass band performed at an Alabama warehouse. What else? Viewers were treated to TikTok Instagram updates about date nights in the warehouse club, in-store surprise birthdays, marriage proposals and Costco-themed house parties. Yeah, I share that. I share that. What's not to like in Costco? Today's poll question, would a 2028 Democratic contender benefit from taking on the socialist ring now? When 260 people voted, it was a close battle between the two. So more on that in just a moment. I spoke of the World Cup. That was yesterday's poll result.
28,529 cast their ballot on that. Has the World Cup finally converted America to soccer? 61.54% say no. This interest shall too wane.

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This is the Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM.

**Michael Smerconish** (4:19)
Thank you to my friends at Parks. The final four clubs remain as we head into the World Soccer Final Match. Sunday, 4 p.m., so two semifinal matches this week. Today, France and Spain, 3 p.m. Eastern. I'll be watching that tomorrow. England, Argentina, 3 p.m. I'll be watching that too. France, the favorite to win it all, followed by Spain and then England and the biggest underdog of the four. The biggest underdog is Argentina. Can you imagine? What's really cool about this big soccer tourney is how the top four ranked teams going into it all are the ones that remain. Have some skin in the game. Betparks and Playgun Lake Online Casino and Sportsbook apps, the only that I ever use and recommend. The Betparks and Playgun Lake apps have a special world soccer hub right in the apps with odds boosts plus team and player props for all the world soccer games. Right now, new customers get up to $500 casino bonus back plus $500 bonus spins on the new soccer-themed online slot game. It's called Goal Goal Goal Collect them. All the prop bets, bet on your players, bet on the teams. You can also play conventional casino games like blackjack, poker, roulette, craps, wherever you are. You're at the beach, you're at the pool, you're on a chaise lounge, wherever you might be, make your downtime fun time.