Hey, everybody, welcome in. Happy holidays. I'm Mark Halper. This is next up. So glad to have you here.

Love New York this time of year. The Tree at Rockefeller Center is up, but not decorated yet.

That's what I call the anticipatory period. I'm very happy to be part of your conversation about

what's next up around the country and politics and other things.

I'm the editor-in-chief of the live interactive video platform 2-way and your guide to everything

next up.

Those of you who are regular listeners know, I call you Nexters, and I thank all you Nexters

for being part of this program as we continue to grow.

Really excited today to talk to two folks who know a lot about a lot.

Patty Siles Doyle, Democratic Strategist, ran Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2008. Really one of the

smartest people I've ever dealt with about what it means to run for president, not just the

technical knowledge, but the fingertip feel. And then Erica Donald's will be here. She's from

the America First Policy Institute

chairs, their program on educational opportunity. We're going to talk about one of my passions,

which is how to make schools better for every kid in America. Excited to talk about them both.

They're both next up after this, but first, before they join us, I want to talk to you about the stay of the

Trump presidency. My reported monologues rely often on my making lots of calls. On this topic,

I almost never need to make any calls because people call me Trump people, anti-Trump people,

other journalists, analysts, citizens, business people. Everybody is fascinated always with what's the state of the American presidency,

whoever's president in any given moment, how are they doing?

What are their political prospects?

And when you've got a lame duck president,

...