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Campaign Crawlers
Tea Party Prophet
Peter Schiff foretold the financial collapse. Now he wants to go to Washington to prevent the next one.
(Page 2 of 2)
“The best defense we have against government tyranny and creeping socialism is to educate the public so they wake up and understand the lie the government is selling them so they don’t buy it,” Schiff explains.
SCHIFF’S ACCURATE PREDICTIONS and uncompromising defenses of individual and economic liberty have gained him many fans. At FreedomFest in Las Vegas where he sat with TAS for this interview Schiff was approached by a fairly constant stream of well-wishers and admirers. A young fund manager told me he went into finance specifically because he was inspired by Schiff’s example of integrity and the possibility that armed with the right philosophy and foreknowledge he could help prepare clients to survive the economic cataclysm that potentially looms.
He also said his views on the nation’s shaky economic trajectory made him a complete outlier among even those colleagues who admit Schiff should have been heeded rather than laughed at three or four years ago. The downside has apparently not gained popularity as a conversational topic in the world of finance, despite all the water under the barely aloft bridge.
At the moment — and, essentially, throughout the race — chances of a Schiff upset have seemed slim at best. “Connecticut Republicans now have a alternative: a wrestling promoter or a businessman and economist,” Schiff told USA Today when he qualified for the primary ballot. “Given the state of our economy, I think the choice is clear.” Not quite as clear as Schiff would likely prefer. While he polls as well against Democratic nominee Richard Blumenthal as Linda McMahon — both are behind — a June poll showed a daunting primary deficit.
Nevertheless, although the fight for name recognition has been much tougher and slower than he’d prefer, and though he’s disappointed his candidacy rarely comes up in media discussions of Tea Party candidacies, Schiff likes the way his favorable/unfavorable numbers break as voters continue to learn about his candidacy.
“I’m behind,” he acknowledges, “but it’s not insurmountable” — and, as we now understand perhaps too well, people ignore Schiff’s forecasts at their own peril. A grassroots surge in these final weeks of the campaign is explicitly not out of the question during such a volatile time. (This is the part where we say Remember Scott Brown.) There will, however, be no meandering across the finish line. Something big must break, and soon, for Schiff to have a shot at winning the August 10 primary against McMahon. And Schiff recognizes that is largely out of his hands.
“It’s not just about wanting freedom — you’ve got to fight for it,” Schiff says. “Fortunately we don’t have to risk our lives for it. I’m not asking people to pick up a bayonet and storm a hill. I’m just asking them to pick up the telephone and make a few calls. And maybe write a check.”
About the Author
Shawn Macomber is a contributing editor to The American Spectator.
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 7.13.10 @ 6:15AM
I'd vote for him.
arlo price| 7.13.10 @ 10:09AM
"The best defense we have against government tyranny and creeping socialism is to educate the public so they wake up and understand the lie the government is selling them so they don't buy it,"......
Alan Brooks| 7.13.10 @ 12:28PM
He hears 'Hail To The Chief' playing in his ears.
cats1cowboy| 7.13.10 @ 6:29AM
When you use phrases such as, "...Tea Party insurgents ..." it is a despicable abuse of leftist anti-American so-called journalism. Tea Partiers are patriots, akin to to founders of this Great Nation. Shame on you!
Alan Brooks| 7.13.10 @ 12:30PM
Well, they are looking out for their families' portfolios.
AMENBRO| 7.13.10 @ 6:30AM
HAIL YEAH!!
I would also. Uncompromisable rafter shacking possibilities indeed. Anybody except the incumbent EXTRORDINAIRE~!!
Please move to NC
DVG93| 7.13.10 @ 7:49AM
I kinda like Tea Party insurgents. Insurgents are patriots too.
martin j smith| 7.13.10 @ 7:50AM
I agree that GWB was no free marketeer and I also agree of the two , possibilities in the election--either complete opposite of BHO or stuck on stupid.
To assure going tothe comp[lete opposite of BHO there are just a few things to work out:
1) Do everything possible to limit effects of voter fraud.
2) Create a group of political researchers who can dig into the belly of the beast to see of any nefarious plans are afoot to circumvent the eletcoral process.
Everything BHO does is both ideological and straegic to those ends. Do you beleive that BHO would try something ? Look at his behavior vis a vis Arizona,The Gulf Oil spill etc This man must be watched like a hawk.
AMENBRO| 7.13.10 @ 2:44PM
Look fer BECK to die mysteriously.
Say what many have but the man has the balls to dig the wheat berries outta the manure pile.
John McLaughlin used to do INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM until he was bought off bout 12 years ago .
Chicago Style| 7.13.10 @ 4:04PM
No surprise when BHO is Re Elected in 2012 -
That is how the political machine works.
We get our people into office no matter what we must do.
You have an address book of friends and family.
We have one of dead people. All registered and willing to vote.
You don't think things can get worse???
Tyler S.| 7.13.10 @ 4:09PM
Actually, us libs love beck. He confirms what we've thought about conservative crazies all along. I mean, the guy is pretty unhinged. He may be a hero to the far right, but moderates tend to view him in the same way they view Micheal Moore on the left. I mean, he's unvieling a "plan delivered to him by god," that just never seems sane.
Jeff Lee| 7.13.10 @ 8:10PM
Beck is what happens when liberals stop taking drugs.
Ms. Jones| 7.15.10 @ 2:09PM
Tyler, have you ever watched his program? Or are you just regurgitating what you read/see in the mainstream media? Actually, the universal condemnation and ridicule of GB is the catalyst for this independent "moderate" to tune in. He just sits back and allows all these progressives to damn themselves with their own words!
Starryeyed| 7.13.10 @ 8:47AM
Oh the sins of the fathers: I remember Irving Shiff. I'm sorry he had to go to jail--but he was wrong. Now in Connecticut we have Red Ned Lamont ,son of Corless big time Soviet appologist. (son of Thomas Lamont a founder of US steel.) Therefore I'm supporting a real business woman, Linda McMann. Along with Anne Couture one of my two favorite blonds.
ds80| 7.13.10 @ 1:28PM
... a real business woman, Linda McMann. Along with Anne Couture one of my two favorite blonds.
It's Linda McMahon. And Anne Couture designs gowns.
Starry: you are poster-material for "uninformed, ignorant electorate".
Tim*| 7.13.10 @ 8:50AM
The Austrian School of Economics trumps Obama's Keynesian Redux Economic Gravedigging Disaster.
The Tea Party Escalates .
We Can See November From Our Houses.
ShortNSweet| 7.13.10 @ 10:10AM
The Tea Party Escalates! I can see November from my house too! Patriots started this thing and Patriots will have to finish it!
Shamus| 7.13.10 @ 8:57AM
It's hard for me to see this guy in Congress. He has a personality that is probably too incendiary for most voters. My guess is that he loses to Linda McMahon.
Paul from SA| 7.13.10 @ 10:31AM
Peter Schiff is a super economist. I would contribute and vote for him, but I'm from Texas. Hey, does Conn. have a ACORN outlet?
While I like Mr. Schiff, I don't know about his political skills.
Ms Jones| 7.15.10 @ 2:11PM
I, for one, plan to vote against anyone with "political skills" (i.e., the ability to lie with a straight face) this November.
Bob K.| 7.13.10 @ 11:27AM
I'd vote for him too!
But enough of the cheerleading. Here is a hard question? How is he going to handle the national pension crisis? Wait until the Republican's take over the house and maybe the senate and then react to the press who will blame it all on them?
William Wallace| 7.13.10 @ 11:53AM
Schiff sounds like a really smart guy with just the prescription to cure what ails us economically. I hate to be jaded and cynical, but that probably means he doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting elected. More's the pity...
My electoral fantasy: a block of senators and representatives that seek to repeal as many laws as possible. Imagine all of the unnecessary, freedom-killing, good-ol-boys-picking-winners laws we could get rid of.
As my namesake said at the end of the movie, "Freeeeedom." Indeed.
John OB| 7.13.10 @ 12:02PM
"The financial crisis does not result from a lack of regulation, but an excess of regulation,"--Schiff "What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not but that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed?"-- Madison, the original Tea Party Prophet.
Louis Jenkins| 7.13.10 @ 12:24PM
Schiff seems to be an up and up kind of politican. At least he's honest.
"should have been heeded rather than laughed at three or four years ago."
A prophet will not have honor in his own country.
SCM| 7.13.10 @ 1:07PM
Sounds like the type of guy we need in office.
And since when do Republicans watch pro wrestling? Why should Linda McMahon have such great name recognition with Republicans?
hrh| 7.15.10 @ 12:23PM
Because she's been firebombing the airwaves with TV ads for the last 7 months ...
Sparky| 7.13.10 @ 4:56PM
He had his shot and he lost. Try again next time. Let's not do the third party dance and elect Blumy.
Ms Jones| 7.15.10 @ 1:47PM
For decades, conservative patriots have held their noses and voted for RINOs for fear of "splitting the vote". I believe the anti-incumbent feeling sweeping the land makes the time ripe to elect third-party candidates (or Democrats, or Republicans) who hold fast to Constitutional values of free markets and small governments. Certain races have the potential to become national, and this is one of them. Chris Pareja's candidacy to unseat the Democratic Poster Child for term limits, dinosaur Pete Stark, is another. Check out chris pareja.com!
Ron Macomber | 7.13.10 @ 6:54PM
This guy sounds like a "super-duper" economist. I would vote for him, but I'm from Delaware. I like Mr. Schiff... seems like he has it together in more ways than one.
Jim East| 7.14.10 @ 12:40AM
You can't vote for him but you can help him get elected. Just go here: http://schiffforsenate.com/
and click where it says " let freedom ring"
Jhalmos| 7.14.10 @ 9:58AM
The cold, hard, painful fact is, the majority of Americans, and I means the mouth breathers as well as the long-lunchers in Washington, aren't ready to heal yet. The Dr. philism "You can't change what you don't acknowledge" can't even apply here, because you sure as he'll can't change what you can't even label. Schiff nailed most of it so accurately because he thinks like a citizen, not a ruler. That's what Austrian economics is in the end. I don't know. The whole thing looks like a takedown to me, rather than the inability to fix it.
Ben| 7.14.10 @ 9:58AM
Peter Schiff advised Ron Paul during the presidential elections. Both were prescient and have been for years. We need Schiff. He also is for a strong national defense of America without all the neoconservative nonsense (I think).
Joe| 7.14.10 @ 11:15AM
If there are not more people like Rand and Ron Paul, and Peter Schiff in Congress; then we don't gracefully or go into the storm with direction. Instead we go into it as a rudderless ship. It will be chaos because everyone will interpret the situation differently. In the end ( much like forest fires ), the market will win. And the market has a lot of dead wood to burn through.
Mac-101| 7.15.10 @ 12:02PM
Unfortunetly, an Economist following simple ECON Micro and Macro 101 principles is now a genius, while the "ELITES" are using rediculous models to destroy this country for the Trans National Kapitalist to establish their NWO!
Jamie Shafer| 7.15.10 @ 5:45PM
This afternoon I just planted 5 Schiff signs on my road frontage on RT 33 in Ridgefield. I am happy with the effect and plan a couple more to make it really effective. Linda McMahon will turn out to be a RINO I believe. Besides she papered the inside of my mailbox with her shiny thick expensive mailings until she got the party endorsement, and that egregious kind of spending does not augur well I tend to think. Actually I have been for Peter Schiff since before he was running, so I say give him your vote Nutmeggers on Aug. 10.
MarylandPTAMom| 7.15.10 @ 6:15PM
We can improve our U.S. government by choosing wisely in the next election and by supporting good government candidates with contributions of time and/or money ... just $20 or $10.
For example, Peter Schiff is running for Senate from Connecticut in the Tuesday, August 10 Republican Primary. He is a businessman with a long record of telling the truth about our government's financial situation. I've heard him as a guest speaker on CNBC for years.
He could use our help with contributions or volunteer time to make phone calls through his website www.schiffforsenate.com
I love America and I love good government politicians!