Author: Fritz Pettyjohn

You should have listened to your mother, Jeb!  The contrast between your embarrassing performance at the border with the Donald’s evisceration of Jorge Ramos is truly humiliating.  A week kneed flop sweat choke versus a masterful display of political balls.

Jeb! decided he needed to prove his political manhood by taking on Trump, and is getting his ass handed to him.  If this keeps up Jeb! will be out of the race after New Hampshire.  Mother knows best, Jeb!  You’re a Bush, you should know that.

Every new poll reaffirming Trump’s dominance is a repudiation of Jeb!, because the Donald is his antithesis.  What was supposed to set Jeb! apart from the field was his appeal to Hispanics.  The Deep Thinkers in the Beltway convinced themselves that Hispanics are now the key voting bloc in Presidential politics, and that Jeb! was the man to get those votes.  He married a Mexican girl, is fluent in Spanish, and has deep family connections to Mexico’s ruling elite.  Jeb! loves Mexicans!   They’ll love him!  When they cross the border it’s an act of love.  It’s love everywhere you look.  It all made so much sense.  It was all such complete hogwash.

This election will be won or lost in Middle America, in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Pennsylvania.  The key demographic in these states is the white working class, not Hispanics.  A whole lot of these swing voters are completely pissed off at illegal immigration, and will take Trump over Bush in a heartbeat.

Yesterday Trump got around to the question I’ve wanted to ask since Kate Steinle was murdered in San Francisco:  When her killer snuck into this country, was that an act of love?

I’ve rarely seen a finer performance than Trump taking down the Univision reporter.  All it lacked was a memorable one liner, like, oh, I don’t know, “Mr.Green, I paid for that microphone!”  I’ve got a name for the reality show we watch every day  — As the World Turns.  Trump’s the top bill, and he did an award winner yesterday.  Give the man his due.

It’s funny how sometimes one fairly obscure person can have a huge impact.  Right now that person is Jill Biden, Joe’s wife.  It’s her call.  He wants to do it, Obama wants him to do it, but he must have her blessing.  It’s asking a lot of this woman.  She raised Beau as her own, since he was just a very little boy, and his death had to be devastating.  She really doesn’t want to do anything but grieve and stay close to her remaining family.  If Joe runs, she knows what she’s in for, and she knows what Joe will have to go through as well.  I hate to say this, but she would be a big asset in the campaign.  Everyone who is aware of what she just went through is going to be totally sympathetic.  I don’t know anything about Jill Biden, but I know the type.  She loves Joe, and she’ll do it for him.

As Biden ascends, Hillary descends.  We’ll see if a reverse bandwagon kicks in.  It could all fall apart pretty quickly.  Hillary’s not inevitable, but she’s still the favorite.  When she loses even that, and it could happen overnight, the long knives come out.  People have held grudges against the Clintons for years, but have been afraid to act for fear of reprisal.  But if there is no prospect of either of them ever holding public office, and power, again, it’s time to settle up.

When no one’s afraid of the big bad wolf, she’s in danger.

There are a lot of parallels between Jeb!* and Hillary.  They’re the candidates of the smart money, the conventional wisdom, the lobbyists and the moneyed interests.  And they both suck as candidates.

As we’ve watched Jeb! on the campaign trail it’s obvious he’s out of his element.  He just doesn’t seem comfortable or natural.  It’s as though he’s playing a part, badly.  He’s not a forceful, or gregarious, or confident man.  Sure, it’s August, but he seems to be getting worse.

I’ve argued that a candidate is judged more by the eye than by the ear.  Women, in particular, don’t listen to the words as much as they watch the man.  They pick up on things that most men don’t see.  The Gipper was a good judge of character, but he always acceded to Nancy’s take on somebody.  Just about every politician I’ve known personally does the same thing.  When it comes to sizing someone up, you listen very closely to your wife.

It boils down to comportment.  A man is judged to be a man because he acts like a man.  And women are better at doing the judging.  Jeb! simply does not come across as a strong man.  He seems like a nice man, sure, and well meaning.  But we want strength in our President, and he comes up way short.  There’s really nothing he can do about it.  You can’t fake manhood.  If you try you look like a bully or a fool.

I’m not talking about physical courage.  There are incredibly brave men, physically, who are moral cowards.  And there are physically weak men who are made of iron.  For all I know Jeb! is a master of the martial arts and could kick everybody on the stage’s ass.  Wouldn’t matter.

Strength in a politician begins with a clear understanding of exactly who you are, what you want, what you are and are not capable of, and complete confidence in yourself to handle any challenge along the way.  Jeb! doesn’t have it.

Politics is the smart person’s reality TV, except that it’s real.  Josh the importance of being Earnest was the highlight of today’s episode.  It was a beautiful performance.  This guy has some talent.  His job is to give Biden the green light without stepping too hard on Hillary’s toes.  A bravura performance.  Everybody got the message.  The President would like to see Joe run.  If he had wanted to, he could have nixed it.  Biden simply can’t run without his blessing.  It looks as though the decision has been made.

Hillary’s toast.

* A visit to the Daily Kos shows the left has also picked up on the exclamation point!

Here’s the link to my piece in AT:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/08/trumping_the_donald_on_affirmative_action_.html

There’s another bit of evidence pointing toward a Biden run:  he did it in ’08.  Hillary was expecting a coronation, and Joe Biden stepped up to take her on.  He withdrew when Obama, who was considered “clean”, emerged as an alternative to her.  Whatever made him think he could beat her seven years ago?  Whatever it was, it holds true today, more than ever.

He thinks she’s corrupt, and reckless, politically incompetent and unfit to serve as Commander in Chief.  Does Elizabeth Warren agree?  If she does she’ll be tempted to sign on with Joe.  Do Obama and the Queen of the Hive, the NYT, agree as well?  Judging from the Hive’s buzzing, they’re heading in that direction.

His son Beau was with him back in ’08.  He’s gone now.

Or is he?

So I saw this piece in The Federalist by some Pecksniff named Ben Domenech, who says Republicans are following Trump into oblivion by catering to working class whites.  Talk of mass deportation of illegals is political poison.  And I’m thinking the Donald needs to expand his critique of immigration policy to include denunciation of affirmative action.  That would really get the Church Ladies of the Republican Party up in arms.  I’m assuming Trump’s position, which is always dangerous, since the first three letters of assume are ass.  I google it and lo and behold the Donald is fine with affirmative action. The WaPo published a transcript of last week’s Meet the Press interview, and in a part that was not broadcast Trump says he’s cool with it.

I had already written a piece for American Thinker in my head.  Al I had to do was write it down.  Then I find out the Donald’s actual position, and I have to start over.  I submitted it, and will link it or print it tomorrow.

Some Republican should go after Trump on this issue.  If he had a pair, Jeb! is the logical choice.  As Governor he took strong action to curb affirmative action in Florida.  He should Trumpet it, but he won’t  — because he’s a Church Lady himself, and is the candidate of the Church Lady wing of the party.  So somebody else.  Cruz is the next obvious choice.  Cruz is one of those guys who knows he’s really smart and loves to show it.  But being smart and understanding politics are two different things.  In Alaska I knew guys who were room temperature IQ, but had great political skills.  They had a kind of low, animal cunning.  I underestimated these guys, and paid for it.   I have yet to see Cruz show any real political skill.  Attacking Trump’s support of affirmative action would call for some deft politics.  Is Cruz capable, politically?  I kind of doubt it.  Some old hand like Huckabee could pull it off, no sweat.

I read somewhere that the Donald has it in, personally, for Jeb!, and is telling people if he goes down Jeb!’s going with him.  This is because the Bushes used their clout with Univision to get them to dump Trump.  If this is true  — and it rings true — it’s a big deal.  Bush has decided to take Trump on, and this will only encourage him to wreak vengeance, if need be.  Trump will not be nominated, but he is fully capable of taking Bush out.  That’s the kind of thing he knows.

I figured Biden might pull a Polk, and pledge to be a one-termer, but what I didn’t see was preannouncing his running mate as Sen. Elizabeth Warren.   If that’s the plan, it’s brilliant.  It sounds like something an old political pro like Biden would come up with.  I’m beginning to gain a Strange New Respect for Crazy Joe.  He’s cunning, like those guys I knew in Alaska.  A man with great political skills, unbridled ambition, and a sense of destiny; and a man of enormous self confidence.  An honest man, who has watched the Clinton money grubbing with disgust for over twenty years.  A man who wants to say yes to his son’s dying wish.

Joe really, really wants to run.

So Jeb! gets on the soapbox at the Iowa State Fair and a guy starts asking him about the Iraq War and Paul Wolfowitz and his brother’s disastrous foray into the Middle East, and Jeb! gets frustrated and can’t really give a satisfactory answer.  This is why he won’t win.  For conservatives, Bush II was a disaster.  We’re all talking about what Obama did to the Democratic Party.  Let’s remember that Bush II cost us the House of Representatives.  We wouldn’t have Obamacare and an 18 trillion dollar deficit if it wasn’t for Nancy Pelosi, and it was the political incompetence of Bush II that gave us to her.

The Bush Brothers are joined at the hip, politically.  Conservatives gave George the nomination because he was from Texas and had a lack of competition.   He blew it.  In Iraq and domestically, he was a disaster for conservatism.  Jeb! is his political clone, without the Texas swagger.  And he’s got lots of competition.   When the time is right, after the field has been winnowed a bit, it will be time to talk about the $3 trillion in debt accumulated by his brother.  He won’t be able to respond any more effectively than he has about the Iraq fiasco.  He has to defend his brother’s record, and he can’t do it.  He’s in a box.  The political class is already fixated on the Presidential race.   The vast majority of voters are barely paying attention.  So the time is not ripe for the $3 trillion dollar question.  But when the time comes, if it’s done properly, it will be the beginning of the end of Jeb!

Chuck Todd’s not that smart.  He’s interviewing Trump, who starts talking about our $1.8 trillion debt.  He’s off by a decimal point, of course, but Todd didn’t pick up on it.  He could have stuck it to the Donald if he was a little quicker.  At some point in this process the candidate who’s quick, and deft, will have a chance to shine.  Hint:  it won’t be Jeb!

Trump’s not going anywhere.  He’s under control, he’s the center of attention, and he’s speaking for millions.  What’s not to like?

I’m beginning to think he could win Iowa.  It’s a caucus state, so casual Trump fans won’t show.  But there’s a real chance a lot of his people are so pissed off at the Republican establishment they can be organized into attending.  Trump’s got a dozen or so paid staffers there, and he should not be dismissed out of hand.  I’m a little over my head here, never having been to Iowa, but I get the impression that Iowa caucus goers realize they are not actually picking the next President.  Look at some of the past winners:  Santorum, Huckabee.  And Pat Robertson and Pat Buchanan each won about a quarter of the vote.  If you’re willing to vote for Pat Robertson or Pat Buchanan, you’re going to be willing to vote for Trump.  And 25% would put you in first place this go round.

I’m principally concerned with knocking Jeb! out of the race, and the longer Trump stays in, the worse it is for him. Trump is everything that Jeb! is not.  All of Jeb!’s shortcomings are magnified when he’s compared to the Donald.  Jeb!’s a button down, goody two shoe, do-as-he’s-told bore with a sense of entitlement.  When Trump drops out, his people are not going to Jeb!  Since nobody knows anything, I can envision a scenario where Trump outlasts Jeb!, when you think about it.  If Jeb! gets creamed in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina he may throw in the towel.

George Wallace asked for votes in order to “send a message” to the Ruling Class in Washington D.C.  A lot of people wanted to send a message back in ’68.  A whole lot more people want to send a message today.  It’s a simple message, which can be boiled down to a few words, the last of which is “yourself”.

Trump’s the man for that message.