Author: Fritz Pettyjohn

JR Dunn edited my piece and put it up at the AT Blog section.  My suspicion that he had some kind of problem with me has proven unfounded.  He’s one of the better regular writers at AT, and has a good piece of his own today calling out he Trump people as dopey.  Here’s my unedited AT piece:

Hillary Clinton cannot be taken out by Joe Biden.  But if Barack Obama, or the New York Times, chooses, she’s toast.  If the President, or the Times, give Joe assurances that they’ll put her down he’s going to run.  If he passes, it means the White House and the Times have decided she’s still the best chance they’ve got in 2016.

They’re asking themselves a lot of questions.  Is Bernie-mania a fad or is it a sign that the progressive base of the party is in full revolt against Hillary?  He’s up by seven in Hew Hampshire and drawing enthusiastic crowds of 30,000.  How is it possible that Bernie Sanders, a quirky old socialist from Vermont, has transformed himself into a political rock star?  Could it simply be that he’s a genuine person, an anti-Hillary?  And if they don’t dump her soon, are they going to be stuck with her?

The Times has enough dirt on Hillary to take her out ten times over.  Can they keep a lid on it for over a year longer?  How much of what they have can they keep to themselves?  Do they really want to start covering up and making excuses for the Clintons all over again?

Obama and Valerie Jarrett are asking themselves who would best defend the Obama legacy?  The Vice President, his biggest cheerleader, or haughty Hillary, who they’ve never respected?  And are they capable, even if they try their best, of keeping all the Congressional investigations at bay?  There are a lot of balls in the air, and they can’t afford to let even one fall.  Wouldn’t it be easier to throw in the towel on her, and leave her to her own fate?  All it would take is the appointment of a special prosecutor, which would be easily justified.

Then comes the $64 question, for the Times and for Obama.  Who would have a better shot in 2016, Joe or Hillary?  Given her performance to date, it’s easy to see them going with the old pro.

Biden’s had winks and nods of approval.  He’s waiting for a commitment.  If he gets it he goes.  He has tremendous confidence in his political skills, is in great shape, and loves to fight.  He sincerely believes he’s ready to step in the Oval Office on day one and be a great President, one who will be a world historical figure.

Joe Biden may not be dead broke, but he doesn’t have a lot to show for a lifetime in politics.  Though he’s been in high public office for over 40 years, his net worth is only $600,000.  He’s a lawyer, he’s had plenty of opportunities to cash in.  He just wouldn’t do it. He and his family have seen others make fortunes in the course of their political careers, but they’ve never seen anything like the Clintons.  While he and others he respects have kept their noses clean and made do, Bill and Hillary flaunt their ill gotten gain.  This rankles all the Bidens, including Beau.

It’s hard to overstate the bond between Biden and his deceased son Beau, who as a small boy lost his mother.  In “What It Takes”, Richard Ben Cramer’s masterful account of the 1988 campaign, he tells the story of a meeting in Biden’s home after the plagiarism scandal hit.  Everyone knew Joe had to quit the presidential campaign, but Beau, just out of high school, was the last holdout.  His stepmother, the rest of the family, and all the advisers and consultants said it was over.  Not Beau.  He wanted his dad to hang in there, keep fighting, never give up

This gives his deathbed wish even greater poignancy.  Say whatever you want about Joe Biden, but he is passionate in the love of his family.  Beau believed in his dad, and said he should run.  Joe believes in himself.

Do Obama or the Times believe?

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

I submitted a piece on Joe Biden to American Thinker.  I’ll either print or link to it tomorrow.

I think Joe will run if Obama or the NYT let him know they’re willing to dish Hillary, which I think one of them will do, if they haven’t already.  Pure speculation on my part, but what the hell?

Biden would be running for Obama’s third term and I think he’d get creamed in the general.  But nobody knows anything, and I guess he’d have just as good a shot as Hillary, if not better.  Though I’m very skeptical of Hillary’s chances, I don’t want her to have any chance at all.  She’d be a terrible President, and I think she’s a terrible person.  Take her out in the primary.  Don’t take any chances.

Biden’s actually an appealing guy in some ways.  The best campaign book ever written was “What It Takes” by Richard Ben Cramer.  A lot of it is about Biden, and it’s a great read.  He’s an egomaniac and a bit of a buffoon, but not a bad guy.

Still waiting to hear back from Rep. Christy Perry in Idaho about setting up a conference call.  I think we may need to wait until after Labor Day, when school gets back in session, before we can get anyone focused on next year’s legislative sessions.  That would give us four months to get ready  — plenty of time.

I’m working on a piece  comparing and contrasting Jeb! and Trump.  Polar opposites.  If the Trump people will refuse to support a Republican nominee, Bush would be the one.  I think I can make into a pretty good piece, which I can get linked to Lucianne.com.  That’s my next goal in my budding career in journalism.

Everybody has to have a dream.

There are 185 comments at the American Thinker on “The Trump Card”, the vast majority solidly behind the Donald.  He’s calling spades spades.  He speaks for them.

Actually, he speaks for a lot of us when he expresses contempt for, in Ted Cruz’s phrase, the Washington cartel.  Bernie Sanders is tapping the same vein, except on the left.  The politics of Washington D.C. is a sink of corruption, and it’s plain for all to see, left and right.  The question for us is bringing Trump people into the fold.  The Democrats will need to get Sanders people lined up behind Hillary, which could be an even tougher task.

Sanders crowds are pumped, motivated.  Hillary will never generate that kind of enthusiasm.  So for every Trump voter who sits it out, there may be a Sanders voter joining them.

Despite having been married so long to a truly gifted liar, Hillary can’t pull it off.  Great liars, like Bill, are shameless and unembarrassed by their lies, so they betray nothing in their speech and manner.  Poor liars, like Hillary, compensate by aggression.  They know that people don’t believe them, so they get pugnacious about it.  Even on the willfully blind left, it’s obvious to see that Bernie Sanders is speaking from the heart, something Hillary doesn’t know how to do.

So go Bernie and go Donald.  Maybe they should do a campaign event together.  They agree that massive immigration is hurting the American working poor.  Get together on that, and their opposition to trade deals, and have a rally.  Trump people meet Sanders people.  It would be good theater.  The Donald needs to give Bernie a call.

I’ll be submitting more stuff to AT, and as long as it’s good quality I’m confident they’ll run it.  AT’s Rick Moran edited “The Trump Card”, and made it better.  They take themselves pretty seriously there, so humor and flippancy are out.  Erick Erickson calls his meeting RedState, and I referenced it as Red Meat.  They took that out.  That’s fine, as long as I know the rules.

I like to think that I can match the quality of most of the stuff they publish at AT, so I’m looking forward to having an outlet other than this blog.

We shouldn’t lose sight of what a great success the debate was.  Just about everybody did well.  Thanks to Trump, 24 million people saw a lot of our candidates for the first time.  Collectively, and individually, a pretty impressive group.  This was the real kickoff of the 2016 race, and, as a harbinger of things to come, it bodes well.

Next year’s Article V campaign will take place in the heat of the most critical time of the primary campaign.  If the Republicans seem to be getting their act together, and Hillary is struggling, it should help us.  At this point in our political history the last thing anybody needs to be worrying about is the threat posed to our freedom by an Article V Convention.   Fear is what we’re fighting.

Six months from now, if we’re winning, fear strikes out.

My article on Trump is in American Thinker today.  Here it is. 

Judging from the first 60 or so comments, the Trump people are uninterested in the leverage Trump is attaining.  They expect him to either win the nomination or win as an independent.  Cruz seems to be the only other Republican who isn’t a RINO.  These commenters are the most zealous of Trump’s supporters.  Hopefully the specter of eight more Clinton years in the White House will pacify the less zealous.

Dave Guldenschuh, the silver tongued terror of the Rome, Georgia, Police Department, has a new blog, thearticlevproject.wordpress.com  .  Here it is.  Just as I have been recording the progress of the Article V movement, so will Dave.  Lately I’ve been posting about a lot of other things, and not really keeping up in reporting on Article V.  So I’m very pleased to welcome Dave to our little corner of the blogosphere.  He starts off with a great story about George Mason, the Father of the Bill of Rights.

Submitted a blog piece to American Thinker (AT) today, entitled “The Trump Card”.  I’ll print, or link, to it tomorrow.  The commenters at AT are mostly Trump people.  But they’re not all crazy.  Half of them approved of my piece on Article V.  These are the Trump people who can be brought back in.  But some of them are so pissed off that they’ve thrown in the towel on all politics, parties and politicians.  They’ll sit it out, they say.  We’ll see.

I’m trying to think of an analogy to Trump in our political history.  Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura come closest, I guess.  And they both won.  This is a little scary.

You can compare him to Ross Perot, but Trump is much more.  He’s a top tier celebrity in his own right.  What we’re witnessing is the intersection of the world of politics and the world of entertainment.  And there are a lot of people who are more interested in Hollywood than politics.  I’m married to one.  Half the people who watched the debate were there to see Trump.  He’s got the networks eating out of his hand.  He’s the lead on most of the Sunday shows, and he’s phoning it in.  That’s all he’ll give them.  They’ll take whatever they can get.  Ratings.

He can keep this up as long as he wants.  He just can’t try to top himself, to be even more provocative.  There’s a line there somewhere.  He hasn’t crossed it yet, but he’s gotten close.  I’m betting he keeps his head.  He’s a pro at this stuff.  I think he lasts into New Hampshire.  And anyone who tells you they know how he’ll do is full of it.  Nobody.  Knows.  Anything.

Jeb!’s response to the flap was instructive.  He did what was expected him, and harshly criticized Trump.  Jeb! will always do what’s expected of him.  He’s very dutiful.  He’s not his own man.

Kasich is playing the Trump story just right.  Perfect, in fact.  He’s showing skills.  His performance at the debate bodes well.

He’s getting closer to the catbird’s seat.