Hey everyone, John Heilman here and welcome to Hell and High Water, my podcast for the recount about politics and culture on the edge of Armageddon with big ups to my pal Riza, the presiding genius behind the sound of Wutane clan and the producer of our dope theme music.

We are now exactly two, count them two weeks out from Election Day, and so

the hell and high water midterm home stretch hustle kicks into high gear. As we welcome

back to the podcast, a dear friend and one of my all-time favorite guests and judging by the

ginormous number of downloads every time he's been on before, one of your all-time favorites,

too. He's the senior political commentator at CNN, the host of one fantastic podcast called The Ax Files,

and the co-host of another fantastic podcast called Hacks on Tap. It's the author of a truly terrific

memoir entitled, Believer, My 40 Years in Politics, and as the director

of the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics, the season ticket holder to the Chicago

Cubs, the Chicago White Sox, and the Chicago Bulls, as well as, get this, the Guinness Book

World Record Holder for Lifetime Quant quantities consumed of pastrami, corned

beef and beef brisket sandwiches from the legendary Chicago institution Mani's Deli.

That might not be totally true, but he's eaten there a lot.

All of those things taken together makes this guy arguably the greatest living ambassador

for the second city,

the windy city, the city of big shoulders, in which, as it happens, he also incidentally

discovered, nurtured, guided, taught the dark arts of politics too, and served famously as the

keeper of the message for another fella, widely associated with

the city of Chicago, a fellow named Barack Obama, whose presidential campaign in 2008,

whose re-election campaign in 2012, and whose White House in the years 2009 and 2010, our

guest today served with pride, dignity, good humor, and even occasionally

humility. And yes, yes, yes, I know you know what I'm talking about here. The man, the myth,

...