Today's Poll Question: What do you fear more — AI, or the government that would regulate it?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Michael Smerconish** (0:30)
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**SPEAKER_3** (1:04)
Get ready to vote on today's daily poll question at smerconish.com.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:09)
But first, Michael explains it for you right here.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:12)
Welcome to The Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM for Independent Minds.

**Michael Smerconish** (1:17)
Hello, hello. Hi gang. Today is Friday. It's the 10th of July, 2026 I'm already thinking about Saturday's poll question. I'm not sure what it will be. It will be something on the thread of the battle within the Democratic Party, Democratic Socialists versus the more traditional, more establishment types. And if you pay attention to the poll questions, listen to the podcast on a regular basis, you're saying, come on Michael, you've been talking about this and haven't we already polled on it? We have, but I read a book yesterday. You read a book yesterday? You read the whole book? Yeah, I read the whole book yesterday. Tad Devine is the author of the book, and it's called How the Democrats Screwed Bernie. It's really good, and it couldn't be more timely, even though it's a book about the 2016 campaign. That's the thing. And here's what makes it interesting. Tad Devine is formerly an establishment guy. He's worked on every presidential campaign on the Democratic side of the aisle since 1980 Okay, the ultimate insider, senior advisor to Gore in 2000, to John Kerry in 2004, establishment candidates, traditional wing of the party.
But in 2016, he goes to work for Bernie Sanders and became the chief strategist for Bernie, the insurgent, the outsider, the guy who in that cycle would end up raising $230 million from 8 million donors. And what's the book about? Well, as the title implies, the book is about how the fix was in for Bernie from the establishment of the Democratic Party. In other words, he points a finger at the DNC and you'll remember, I won't go into it now, but he goes into some of what happened relative to Bernie and the DNC. He talks about the media. He talks about the role of super delegates and just says like, you know, he never had a shot. And this is 2016
And of course, what happens in 2020? In 2020, the field collapses and coalesces, right? In 2020, around Joe Biden, 72 hours before Super Tuesday, or it would have been Bernie.
So, you know, Tad Devine, once establishment, then insurgent, the perfect person to answer the question of whether the party moving forward should go in a traditional or in a democratic socialist direction. And the thesis of his book is, the thesis of the book is, stop getting in the way of the electorate.
Stop these elites from determining the outcome. And of course, you know, this points to what happened with Kamala Harris in 2024 Really, really interesting. I just blew right through it. He'll be on my CNN program tomorrow, and then he'll be on my POTUS program on Monday. And it'll be great because I won't be able to do him justice on CNN in five minutes, but we'll take our time on Monday, and I think it'll be a really good conversation. And as I say, a book about the 2016 campaign could not be more prescient about where things stand today. Well, Michael, thank you for that amuse bouche. Can we get on with today's poll question and yesterday's result? Yes, we'll do that in a moment.

**SPEAKER_4** (4:40)
This is The Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM.

**Michael Smerconish** (4:43)
How about Mbappé and France over Morocco, and today 3 p.m. Spain and Belgium, and then the one I've circled tomorrow, Saturday, 5 p.m. Norway and England, and then at 9 p.m. Argentina and Switzerland.