Posted on 01/22/2009 1:49:57 PM PST by Congressman Billybob
Thank you Mr. President for this interview. We’re both lawyers and students of history. I look forward to your comments on the “ideals of our Founding Fathers” you referenced in your Inaugural Address.
Which Founders are you particularly thinking of?
Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Franklin? That’s a superlative group.
Yes, of course, we must exclude that slavery matter. Both Washington and Jefferson, until they died, held slaves.
Did you know that one of your four men founded a secret society that anonymously published a pamphlet by Thomas Paine favoring abolition?
Yes, it was Franklin. If he’d come out in public and said that, would he ever again hold high public office?
Right. You can’t get too far ahead of your times. What would we have lost, without Franklin’s services?
Yes, wed have lost the American Revolution without Franklin’s treaty with the French. That gave us the French fleet and marines at Yorktown. But there’s another huge loss.
Give up? We would have lost the Constitution, as well. Franklin’s advice for wise compromise was essential. Plus he was the only Founder who really understood “intellectual property rights.”
When you referred to “markets that have unmatched power to generate wealth and expand freedom” did you think of the Copyright and Patent Clause?
I thought so, but did you know that Franklin created that clause? Did you realize that Clause led directly to Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Alfred Hitchcock, Count Basie, Patsy Cline, and Oprah Winfrey, among many, many others?
No, you’re right. Most people don’t consider the consequences of the ideals of the Founders.
Thank you for using a Tom Paine quote. Please tell the listeners more about that event.
Yes, they no longer teach students, in high school or college, that George Washington’s troops were about to end their enlistments, which were only for six months. So, Washington made an all-or-nothing gamble on Christmas in 1776 and took his remaining 3,000 able-bodied troops across the Delaware, at night, in a snowstorm, to attack the Hessians at Trenton.
Did you deliberately avoid the opening quote from Paine’s American Crisis, because it’s been overused? “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his nation. But he that serves it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
Understandable. Showing some variety in your speech.
Among all the Framers, who was the most important?
Jefferson for his intellect? Madison for the Constitution? Yet, all things considered, you choose George Washington for his leadership in all ways?
I think most citizens who think about the Founders at all, would agree.
Let’s pursue an event in General Washington’s leadership of the American Revolution. Do you recall the fate of British Major John Andre?
Right. He was the British agent for Benedict Arnold’s intended betrayal of the garrison at West Point. Andre was captured behind American lines, in civilian clothes, with incriminating documents in his boot.
What happened to him?
Right. General Washington had him hanged. Under what authority?
Yes, he was a spy. But American generals cannot go around the world, point at any civilian, say “He’s a spy,” and have him killed, can they?
Yes, there does have to be “some kind of trial.” Andre got a “drumhead” trial before General Washington. We call those military tribunals today.
They were conducted under the Law of War, which is centuries older than the United States, and was adopted into US military law in 1789.
Were you aware of that?
I thought not.
That process was approved by a unanimous Supreme Court in the 1942 Quirin case. Did you know that?
Do you have your Blackberry handy? I’ll bet you have Internet access on that thing, don’t you?
Search for Ex Parte Quirin in 1942. It’s a quick read, just 26 pages.
So, by shutting down the military tribunals at Guantanamo, aren’t you attacking, rather than defending, both the ideals of the Founders and the Constitution that they wrote?
Mr. President?
Mr. President?
Well, if you say the interview’s over, it’s over.
Thank you, Mr. President.
- 30 -
I started out to write a straight, logical piece. Then, memories of The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart got into my mind, and this resulted.
Sorry about that unfortunate image. But it's true.
John / Billybob
ping
BO would do well to remember some of Mr. Jefferson’s quotes.
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Thomas Jefferson
—b-—
Nice. I hope that he who is not to be named reads this.
Obama ought to understand the fact that some of the greatest of the founding fathers were slave owners, since he is descended from a long line of slave traders himself.
Thank you! This was a good one. Only by invoking the founders, and those with the highest of American ideals (David Crockett comes to mind in this era of obscene government spending of taxpayer dollars) can we hope to stop our full tilt at government tyranny over American life.
BTTT
Heres a great quote for Obama, and Clinton too:
"He who lives upon hope shall die fasting." - Benjamin Franklin
And violated the Oath of office you bungled just a mere day ago?
Isn't that grounds for impeachment when you swear to an oath to preserve and protect the constitution of the United States of America, when you KNEW in your mind that you had NO intention of fulfilling that duty, and proving so when you violated that oath less than 24 hours later?
Mr Usurper President? Mr. Usurper President? Hello?
Congressman Billybob
Latest article, "Coming Soon to a TV Near You!"
The Declaration, the Constitution, parts of the Federalist, and America's Owner's Manual, here.
When and where did this interview occur? Is their audio copy? Can you recaption the article showing Obama’s comments versus the interviewers?
As I have said, and will repeat for four years, Obama is nothing more than a Chicago gangland punk thug.
But I deeply appreciated your suggesting that it might be real. LOL.
John / Billybob
I agree. It's the best form of attack. Besides, we need to have some fun the next four years.
I’m glad Obama mentioned the “Founding Fathers”. That term has fallen into disuse because of women’s lib. The politically correct term is “Framers” of the constitution. It offends the professional feminists to use “Founding Fathers” because it’s not inclusive of women. The fact that they were all men doesn’t matter to the politically correct crowd. Don’t ask why they think that way.
I am currently reading “Jefferson The Virginian” by Dumas Malone. It’s the first of six books about Jefferson which eventually earned him the Pulitzer Prize. I unfortunately don’t have the book with me to quote from, but Jefferson came out against slavery (in writing) before 1776.
John / Billybob
American Sphinx by Joseph Ellis is good too, though some discount it on account of the author's bogus claims of serving in Vietnam. His book on Washinton, 'His Excellency', is also worth reading.
I still don’t have the book with me. It’s on page 187 of Malone’s first book about Jefferson, “Jefferson The Virginian.” (I remember the page but not the quote.) He mentioned it in something he wrote, but his suggestion about the colonies wanting to stop the practice of slavery went nowhere at the time. It was not a letter to a friend. I’ll make a note to myself to bring the book the next time. (The book is at my mother’s old house.)
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