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Hey, thanks so much for joining us for Last Call, where we get to some of the topics we didn't have time for in the first segment.

Bill, I'm going to go to you on Josh Hawley.

He runs for re-election in 2030, I think.

Is that correct, Joe?

Yes.

But some people have said maybe he could be a good Republican candidate for president in 2028.

What do you think about that?

Well, I think it's a strong possibility.

He's a very smart, very ambitious guy.

I've always said he reminds me of Bill Nixon, Bill Clinton.

You know, basically a small-town guy going off to a big college and then ending up at Yale Law, marrying a classmate.

A lot of things going along.

And I think that Hawley's looking and seeing that the ground has changed a little bit.

It looked like J.D.

Vance and Mark Rubio were kind of the guys.

One of them would get it.

And now after Tuesday, suddenly Josh Hawley, who's not an insider in the MAGA crowd, has a better shot.

And he had said he was not going to run for president.

But at 2 o'clock Wednesday morning, I think he was saying, like, son, you're in a pretty good place right now.

He said he wasn't going to run for the Senate.

No, I'm just saying that if he could say that things changed and they changed dramatically, he could also propose that, look, we are not going to win the Oval Office with Trump's lackeys running.

So I need to step up for my party.

So I'm not a big Josh Hawley fan, but I could see where it was a great night for him.

It has been interesting, though, because I think a lot of people were kind of puzzled because when everybody was leaning in to MAGA, he was kind of, you know.

He was not with Iran from the get -go also.

Well, how about Eric Schmidt?

He's pretty tight with the vice president, J.D.

Vance.

He's very tight.

Does he need to pivot in the next two years?

But where do you pivot?

He's up for reelection in 2028.

That's what I'm saying.

It's like I really believe right now this is I think there is a humongous part of the electorate right now that is they want instant gratification.

If they don't see it from the Republicans, they're going to go Democrat, and then they're going to go Republican again.

It will make your head snap.

These are not generational allegiances anymore like they used to be.

Why not triangulate and go after issues that Republicans and Democrats like?

For example, kids and smoking or kids and the Internet, topics that everybody's concerned about.

Well, you talk about how Hawley's done it with AI.

He was one of the first ones on to this is damaging our children.

Yeah, he did.

When I think of how this came up, and twice I've been assigned stories by my bosses to ask Hawley if he's running for president, and of course he says no.

And I'm sure if I ask them if they assign it to me next month, it'll be no, of course not.

I do think that if we're playing that game of looking down the line, I think that Senator Schmidt probably now will focus on getting reelected in 2028 to being a U .S.

senator, where Josh Hawley has more options.

I'll put it that way.

I think he has more options, and I think he has more options.

The one thing I never understood, because people would say, well, maybe Hawley will be on the vice president for J.D.

Vant, or maybe it's going to be Eric Schmidt.

I didn't see Ohio, Missouri as a good pick to start with.

That's too center of the country.

If J.D.

Vant took the hit that everybody says he did Tuesday, whatever, then I think you end up with Marco Rubio or Aaron DeSantis kind of rising in there.

Now you've got a Midwesterner who makes a great balance for a ticket.

So do I see Hawley as a better chance for vice president after Donald Trump's getting slapped?

Yes, I do.

You know, I don't know how important geographic balance is anymore.

I mean, when Bill Clinton picked Al Gore, I remember all the political— Wait a minute.

Arkansas and Tennessee?

And, you know, I think we might be beyond geographics.

I'm not sure about that, Joe.

I don't know.

I mean, you could be right.

You could be right.

But I'll go back here.

The reason Bill Clinton won was because the economy went in the tank and people voted their pocketbook.

Otherwise, that could have maybe not been as successful.

Right.

Good point.

Bill, let me ask you, if you're in a generous mood, there is a bill that has been put forward by Sam Graves, a congressman in Missouri, for another two or three months, right?

And this bill would say that if anyone is going to even study the diversion of the Missouri River to go to the West, to places like Arizona, they'll have to get unanimous consent by all the governors in the Missouri River Valley.

And that's about eight states, including Missouri.

Do you think that water from the mighty Missouri River should be diverted one way or the other to the drought-stricken people, our fellow Americans in the southwest part of the country?

Well, I'm very petty about all these things.

And I say, hey, that's our water.

And I moved to Arizona in 1970, and the metro region was a million people.

And it was just starting to grow.

And, you know, it's the desert.

And there was a lot of sand.

And to grow, they started having golf courses and people had green yards.

And you wouldn't have thought it was the desert.

And now it's 5 million people.

And Missouri, which was about 2.3 million back then, is now 2.8 million.

And I think do we really, you know, they have nice weather and they have some good scenery, but they're short on water.

Why would we give them our water?

Let's do some math.

Oh, how much do y'all need?

Y'all need 5 million gallons a year at $10 a gallon?

Them eight states would say, like, hey, send that water on.

That's right.

Send us the money, we'll send you the water.

They'll take care of property.

Right.

I mean, people pay $3 for a plastic bottle of water that basically comes out to tap anyway.

So, I mean, yeah, cash in on it.

I say sell the water.

Well, yeah.

Give water away?

Why would we do that?

Why would we do that?

Well, as I said, generosity used to be built into the American spirit.

It's just not anymore.

And as far as the weather goes, it's great if you're a lizard.

I mean, for Arizona.

And if we were going to, like, dig a trench, you know, that would be jobs where the water could just flow out there.

Oh, they've already talked about that.

I don't.

It would create jobs.

The unions would love it.

Yeah.

And who wouldn't?

I think we have to lead the nation and say, look, even though it doesn't seem like anyone helped us with our tornado in North St.

Louis.

Which they never do.

In May of last year.

Right.

Why not?

Why don't we show how it's done?

And we'll vote to at least study the issue.

No, it should be studied.

And what is the economic impact of selling the water?

And each state ended up with, like, $20 million a year, something like that.

Hey, they should, like, sell the water.

Well, and I don't think we have to worry about the government spending money to do some studies.

They may do more than one.

Like 12.

Or 18.

Reed McClellan did a water study.

Right.

You've got Reed McClellan bidding for at least two.

Hey, sell the water.

If they do that, we're going to have a Weiss-Holloman firm start up so we can get a piece of that.

With our luck, though, the minute we start, you know, giving, you know, altruistically we're giving Arizona this water, we'd have a catastrophic drought.

It would be dust bowl part two.

That's why we've got to sell the water.

You've got to admit, isn't it weird, and I don't even know if most folks realize how weird it is, that in the city of St.

Louis, they do not meter the water.

We have so much of it thanks to the Missouri and the Mississippi.

Meanwhile, other parts of the country, you know, are brown seven months a year.

And they're limiting how much water they can put on their plants and how long their showers are.

And that might help companies move here.

Why hasn't it?

Well, I mean, water is just starting to become an issue now.

You can see with all the drought and now they want the Colorado River.

If they don't get that water, St.

Louis might be a room count.

Remember when we were growing up, like 80 % of the people around here watered their lawns.

People don't do that anymore.

And I think it's just because they know that people drive by and they're like, look at these people watering their lawn.

Right.

So water is... Really?

Yeah.

You don't water your lawn?

Sprinklers?

No, come on, man.

Grass is grass and weeds is weeds and it's green.

Okay.

But no.

But people think water is precious.

So they don't want to give water away.

But we will sell water.

I guarantee it.

Reeve McClellan will sell water.

How long is your shower?

Oh, it depends.

You know, like... That's a personal question.

No, no.

You do not have to answer that.

Our clients does not have to answer that.

There are some days where I have a violation of all, you know, like things that are environmental.

Right.

Oh, yeah.

Among the topics we'll be discussing next week on Dining Room.

We hope you join us.

See you then.