Today's Poll Question: Who Wins The House In November?

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Get ready to vote on today's Daily Poll Question at smerconish.com.

SPEAKER_2 (0:05)

But first, Michael explains it for you right here.

SPEAKER_1 (0:08)

Welcome to The Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM.

SPEAKER_2 (0:11)

For Independent Minds.

Michael Smerconish (0:13)

Hello, hello. Today is Wednesday, it's the 9th of September, 2026 Yesterday, we had a healthy vote at smerconish.com on the Daily Poll Question, 33,796 cast ballots on the question of would America be better off as two countries? 87.3% said no, 12.7% said yes. Yesterday, I shared with you that in recent scientific polling, the yes number was close to 18%.

So far fewer of our voters wish to see the country have an amicable divorce. Why was I asking that question? Well, I told the story yesterday of how next Tuesday I'm launching on YouTube a new program. It's called Can We Agree? Can We Agree is two distinguished guests debating one issue for roughly an hour, uninterrupted, yours truly moderating every conversation. They are recorded live in person in my studios. So everybody is kneecap to kneecap. And thus far we've attracted extraordinary participants, extraordinary, especially when I've not had any tape to show anybody. I've only had a concept. So the first that we recorded was John Yoo from Berkeley and William Galston from Brookings in the Wall Street Journal arguing whether Trump has chained the American presidency or simply revealed executive power that his predecessors never exercised. And the second episode was Artificial Intelligence and features Richard Clark, the nation's first cyber czar and Jennifer Huddleston from Cato on whether and how to regulate AI. And then Senator Joe Manchin came in and squared off against Jamal Simmons, the former communications director for Vice President Harris. Most recently, just last week, Congressman Tom Swazi of New York debating former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner on whether and where democratic socialism fits in the future of the Democratic Party. What I'm about to record, and this gets me back to yesterday's poll question, is whether America needs an amicable divorce. And I got headed down this road because I read Kurt Anderson's brand new novel called The Breakup.

He's got the United States in 2044, 2045, having gone through a period of what he describes as disunion. He doesn't call it secession because in his thinking, in his fictitious thinking, we've had an amicable divorce. And he paints a very detailed picture of what it looks like. And it's not just, you know, whack up the country by the Mason-Dixon line. And it's not do it by state, and it's not do it by county. No, it goes all the way down to a metro level.

So, you know, you've got a red swath across the country with blue dots in all different locations. You know, Austin, Texas is no longer part of the United States. Pardon me, is part of the United States. What has broken off is the remainder of Texas into something called the Free America Republic, Free American Republic. It's a really provocative read. So after I read that book, I thought, hmm, who has thought out whether this is all practical? And that led me to Ryan Griffiths from Syracuse, who's written a couple of books on the subject, most recently, The Disunited States. And Professor Griffiths makes the argument that it would be bloody and it would be a mess and it wouldn't work. And we're better off getting along, reducing polarization and sticking together. So the two of them are coming into my studio at the end of the week to have that conversation. And that's what led me to think, would America be better off as two countries? Hence yesterday's vote.

The midterm elections, I was going to say the election is eight weeks from yesterday, but people are in like North Carolina, they already got their ballots. Instead, I'll say it wraps up eight weeks from yesterday. And that's the focus of today's poll question.

SPEAKER_2 (4:30)

The Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM.

Michael Smerconish (4:33)

Let me thank my friends at Parks Casino College Football is here already really exciting. Really that whole Western Michigan, Michigan, unbelievable. You can make a futures bet right now on who's going to win it all in college football. All the conferences are back, the futures bets, well, number four ranked Notre Dame is the fave. A $25 bet on Notre Dame to win it all pays $150.

$25 wager on number one ranked Ohio State pays $150.

Now look at Penn State, they're ranked number 18, bet $25 on them. And if it hits, it's $1,875. Make your downtime fun time, bet parks, they also bring the casino right to your fingertips wherever you might be. You can play your classic casino games and oh yeah, brand new users can get up to $500 bonus back plus 250 bonus spins on the hot online slot game Sahara Rich's Collectum Max. So what do you do? You got to be 21 and in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, you go to bet parks, the online casino and sportsbook app, casino bonus has to be wagered, that's for new users only. And if you've got a gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER.