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If I had two hours with the guy who wrote and directed Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds, the presidential election strategy would not have come up. I can guarantee that. But thankfully, Bill Maher is different.
The former Politically Incorrect and Real Time host started his Club Random podcast in 2022. Bill had Quentin Tarantino, one of Hollywood’s all-time greatest movie directors, producers, and writers, on his show a couple of weeks ago. A little over halfway through, Bill maneuvered the conversation to politics, specifically the upcoming presidential election.
If you are familiar with Bill, you will know he is a lifelong Democrat with some highly idiosyncratic viewpoints. He is unafraid to break from Democratic Party dogma and often does. At one hour and fourteen minutes in, Bill begins to discuss the upcoming presidential election with Tarantino.
Bill perfectly channels our work at the Independent Center in about two minutes. He states, “The bigger issue is the left and their ability, or their desire to engage with anyone who’s not already in the bubble. And they get a big fat D minus on that.” To which Tarantino responds, “I couldn’t agree more.”
Bill recognizes the importance of reaching beyond the base and talking to the voters who will actually determine the outcome of the election. The candidate who wins the independent voters in the middle will win the election, period. Donald Trump won independents by 4 percent in 2016, and Joe Biden won them by 13 percent in 2020. 2024 is no different. Spending time talking to the base is like preaching to the converted, and it gains a candidate almost nothing.
Elections are won and lost by the voters in the middle.
Bill says he is excited that his party now has a shot at winning with Kamala Harris, but she isn’t doing any interviews and wouldn’t go near his show, even though he will vote for her. He thinks that’s a problem, but Tarantino doesn’t. Then, Tarantino inadvertently sets Bill up to say the most Independent Center strategy advice ever. Tarantino says, “There’s no reason for her to go on your show before the election.”
Bill responds as though he’s one of our proud members who has read our insights, “Yes, there is because I speak to the exact voter she needs, the person who is in the middle, the person who is not ideologically captured by either side… Basically, that’s exactly the audience she needs.”
He goes on, “The MSNBC crowd is already voting for her. People who watch me, who will decide this election… This election will probably be decided in like four states by something like 80,000 votes in each. That’s how close they are these days.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
