Don't get me wrong. The right-wing sonuvabitch content hustler in me prefers it when progressive wackadoodles get owned. As we say, these clicks don't bait themselves. But the conservative American voter in me likes to believe that, on occasion, talking and listening and an attempt to find common ground could be fun. A Vivek Ramaswamy clip from an Iowa event is going viral for being the latter, and other candidates need to pay attention.

Shout out to Not the Bee.

The woman, at first, sounds like a pro-abortion activist. Screaming about forcing a woman to keep a baby after a rape. The crowd was quick to boo, but Vivek was quick to let her speak. She was angry about something. Let her have her moment.

As she spoke, she said how she was already a single mother because the father had left her to raise the kid all by herself and she was struggling. As Vivek engaged her more, she started to brag about her kid and how successful the kid was. It ended with Vivek talking about the importance of motherhood and being a parent.

Turns out the woman was not a pro-abortion activist. She was a voter who is having a tough go on it, probably read on the internet somewhere what an actual pro-abortion activist said about the GOP, and needed a place to vent. She went to an event where a GOP presidential candidate was.

What Vivek did was what the boss refers to as "matching intensities." Had the woman been an activist looking to shut the event down, he would have dealt with her. If the woman had a question about Vivek's views on being pro-life, he would answer. This woman just needed to feel heard. So he let her feel heard.

In Iowa and New Hampshire, where retail politics is king and a candidate wins by converting one voter at a time, THIS is how you do it.

I've been clear who my dog in the hunt is. And I'm leery about comparing Vivek to other candidates from past races because people skip the analogy and then go to everything that candidate has ever said that they don't like. But I am VERY interested in seeing how Vivek Ramaswamy performs when the primary debates come around and a national audience starts to pay attention.

Third place is the sweet spot to be right now.

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Brodigan is Grand Poobah of this here website and when he isn't writing words about things enjoys day drinking, pro-wrestling, and country music. You can find him on the Twitter too.

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