The Biography of Joseph Clark Blake (Fiction, obviously)

[Dr. Cynic]

The Biography of Joe Blake

Thomas Valentine Blake:
(Condensed Bio from Blake: A Presidency Revealed)
Farmer-Labor Party member Thomas V. Blake and his wife, Arlene have their third child, a son, Earl Howard Blake on July 17th, 1920. Tom Blake, the son of a steamship captain, born on March 9th, 1887, moved to Seattle from Atlantic City, New Jersey and became a prominant local small-businessman who sold horse cart and later automobile replacement parts. Tom Blake later served on Seattle city council for a decade. After the demise of the FLP, Blake returned to the Democratic Party, but never again ran for public office. Tom Blake passed away peacefully in his home in Aberdeen, Washington on September 12th, 1964 at the age of 77. His beloved wife, Arlene Blake preceded him in death by less than a year.

Earl Blake
(Condensed bio information from several sources)
Earl Howard Blake was born on July 17th, 1920. A short-tempered youth, Earl Blake grew tired of the Pacific Northwest quickly. Longing for adventure, teenage Earl moved to Los Angeles, California with aspirations to work in movies. Initially dropping his first name, Blake appeared as a bit player in a few short subjects made by Columbia Pictures as "Howard Blake". Discouraged with the low pay, Blake again moved, this time to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he finally found work that paid well and piqued his interest as a railroad worker. Initially serving as a switch train engineer, Blake quickly moved up to driving the monsterous 2-6-6-6 Allegheny H8. Shortly after the Alleghenies were deactivated and most scrapped, Earl Blake drove on several different engines. Earl Blake remained working as an engineer, adapting to the new diesels, Blake remained an engineer until 1987 when he finally retired from CONRAIL. Earl Blake and his wife, Kathleen Watts Blake had four children. Arthur (1944-1947) who was born in Los Angeles, but died at the age of three in a car accident, Joseph (1950 -), who would become a U.S. Senator and later President of the United States, Robert (1953 -), who became a professional wrestling promotor and Travis (1958 -), who would go on to become an NFL Offensive Coordinator with the Chicago Bears and later Pittsburgh Steelers. Earl Blake, suffered senile dementia in his later years and passed away on September 30th, 2001. His wife, Kathleen followed him on April 16th, 2009.

MORE TO COME.......

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Good start, Doc. Nice to see more fictional stories about fictional people developing

[Dr. Cynic]

Interview with Joe Blake Post-Presidency
(Special Thanks to Aaron Martin of Reuters for the tape)

"I never thought I would make politics a career. At least not initially. I wanted to be a football player. I liked sports of all kinds. So did my younger brothers, Bobby and Travis. Bobby liked watching Studio Wrestling at Mellon Arena while Travis never got enough football. I was like Travis. Loved football. I never got into the partying like my friends did. I didn't really even pay attention to politics until the 1968 election."

"Since you weren't able to vote at that time, how did you become interested?"

"Hubert Humphrey was very popular here. I liked him, but didn't support the war, so I began as a volunteer for Bobby Kennedy. I just did little things like pass around flyers and stuff. When RFK was shot, I decided to stay involved. I got involved with the Humphrey campaign and that was that."

"When did you meet your wife, Lauren?"

"I met Lauren on campus at Pitt."

"Describe your days as a student at the University of Pittsburgh?"

"I took 1968 off and started in 1969. I played Center for Pitt football team. First for David Hart and then Carl DePasqua. We weren't very good. My last year, 1973, I played for Johnny Majors who was a great football coach. I'm sorry I hadn't been a few years younger. I met Lauren my sophmore year. She was a cheerleader. Players weren't supposed to fraternize with the girls, but me and Lauren saw each other secretly until we graduated. We got married on May 11th, 1974."

"What did you do before you entered politics?"

"Well, from 74-76, I worked for Mayor Pete Flaherty as an assistant in his office. He really cultivated me. He used me as a go between to the City Council, which prepared me for the future."

"You were elected to the House in 1976..."

"That's right. I was barely the minimum age. Everyone remembered and knew me though, so I did well with almost no money."

"How did you adjust to Washington?"

"I got drunk a lot. I went out and partied. I missed it all beforehand, so I did it in Washington. Two things stopped all that, though. In 1977, Lauren got pregnant and Mo Udall took me aside and set me straight. Mo was a nice man. I miss him dearly. He always took the time for young guys. Really made us feel welcome. Then in 78 I was re-elected and Brian Thomas Blake was born."

"Tell us about the 1980 Senatorial Election. It was quite a vicious campaign."

"Well, Pete Flaherty encouraged me to run against Arlen Specter, the lawyer from Philly. He said a lot of things about me, like I was a child and didn't know a damn thing. People don't go for that. I talked about issues that people on both sides of the state cared about and that's what really matters. That'd be a lesson I'd tell the younger set. Never go personal on someone because first, it rarely works and second, how would you feel if someone went personal on you? Arlen Specter never learned that and look where he is now? Nowhere."

"You stayed in the Senate from 1980 until 1996."

"That's correct."

"What was the most difficult moment you ever encountered in that 16 years?"

"Probably the Robert Bork hearings. It was worse than Clarence Thomas. Also, Jesse Helms was probably the most unkind member I ever dealt with there."

"Who did you count as your closest friends?"

"I liked Ted Kennedy, but I wasn't around him much until the early 90s. Dale Bumpers was a good guy. Biden and I were a lot alike too."


END PART 1

[Dr. Cynic]

Part 2 of Joe Blake's Post Presidential Interview
Courtesy Reuters

"You and your wife have three children, correct?"

"That's right. As I told you, Brian was born in 1978. In 1980, we had Owen and in 1983, we had James."

"How did you balance a congressional career with young children?"

"Lauren was very good with all the boys. They were all fairly different. Brian liked books, Owen liked the arts and Jamie liked sports. They were all very different and it wasn't easy to balance, but we do what we have to do."

"In 1996, you decided to run for President..."

"Yes. I didn't know if I could mount a successful campaign for the nomination, but I wasn't up for re-election to the Senate until 1998. I decided that I was ready to make a run at it. We had just come off of all those years of Republican ruin. Reagan, Bush, Dan Quayle taking over when Bush died."

"Who was the most difficult primary opponent?"

"Bill Clinton. He had made a run and lost in 1992. He's a very ambitious man. Very charismatic. He connects with people. He's also ruthless. He was an extremely challenging opponent. We also had John Kerry, Al Gore, Wyche Fowler, and Joe Biden. Very strong candidates in their own ways. I got a lot of encouragement from Dale Bumpers and Paul Simon. I went and saw Mo Udall as often as I could, but he was already very sick."

"What would you say was your Presidency's greatest accomplishment?"

"I would say it would be that unemployment hit the lowest marks in a decade and a half under my watch."

"Biggest regret?"

"I would say it's double-eged. I regret our inability to sell the people on a World Government. It became inexpediant to attempt such an endeavor, no matter how badly I felt it should be necessary for global peace. I also regret all of the domestic terrorism we had to fight."

"Thank you for the interview."

"My pleasure."

End Tape

[Dr. Cynic]

TIME

East VS West in Pennsylvania

Archived on September 10th, 1980

Pennsylvania is an anomoly. Few states can be divided in such a way. It can be slashed in half right down the middle. The more populous, more east coast minded Philadelphia on one end. The less populous, rust belt minded Pittsburgh. It is not often that two cities of the same state have such different mindsets and personalities and even languages. Philadelphia speaks much the same as their east coast neighbors in New Jersey and New York. Pittsburgh on the other hand as a language all its own. They say words like "Pop" instead of "Soda". Pittsburgh has been experiencing a severe economic downturn with the collapse of the Steel industry. Philadelphia has had bad luck as well, but nothing at all like the loss of its major export. Epitomizing both of their cities are uniquely different candidates in this 1980 Senate election. Arlen Specter, a moderate Jewish Republican who supports abortion rights, has appeared as he is. A slick, smart, and cuthroat attorney. Specter has long been accused of doing anything to get ahead, including personal attacks. Specter embodies all that Philadelphia stands for. A ruthless, slick, but liberal cosmopolitan city. On the other hand, you have Joseph Blake from Pittsburgh. Blake, a bear-like former football player at Pitt who formerly served as an assistant to former Mayor Flaherty and currently is representing Pennsylvania's 18th district. Blake, a big tough looking man who is first and foremost a friend of the labor union, fits right in with Pittsburgh's mindset.

As the campaign stands today, Specter holds a slight lead on his Democratic opponent. With more money and name recognition, Specter seemed poised to cruise to a quick victory, but Blake has rapidly closed the gap. Specter is sometimes vague on issues and will occassionally resort to legalese when talking about something complex. Blake has a way of simplifying complicated issues and tailoring them to fit into a bigger picture of his overall views. Specter has been campaigning on a law and order platform. He is focused on tougher sentencing for criminals, which is a Philadelphia pet issue right now. Blake has campaigned on bringing more jobs to Pennsylvania, a pet Pittsburgh issue.

Overall, these men represent the best of their sections. The one who figures out how to best balance the two parts of Pennsylvania will find themselves victorious in November.

[Dr. Cynic]

Joseph Clark Blake

(From Wikipedia)

---Influences---

Blake, a pro-labor liberal, grew up in his own words as a "Hubert Humphrey Democrat", however his earliest political involvement came for the Robert F. Kennedy campaign. However, upon Kennedy's assasination, he officially volunteered for Humphrey's campaign. He first met Humphrey at a rally in Pittsburgh and later as a freshman Congressman in 1976. Blake recounts in his autobiography American Dreams:

"I happened upon HHH in the Congressional Libraries. It turns out, Hubert never did his own writing, and preferred to dictate to his staff. I had only managed to get maybe one bill done, a minor bill to improve saftey at traffic on federal property. It turns out, I was not a good writer. Hubert told me I should dictate into a tape recorder and find a page willing to help out by doing the actual writing. I did so and since then, I do but little writing. I had a drink with Humphrey about two weeks later and we recounted our own histories. I told him about my father Earl who wanted to make it big in Hollywood, and my grandfather, Tom, who actually started the politics and everything by being elected to Seattle City Council. He asked how my wife and I were doing in Washington and was a very friendly man. I didn't know him long, but he did call us when he heard Lauren was pregnant. Unfortunately, he died in January of 1978, a few months before Brian was born. Even still, Hubert Humphrey had probably the largest personal influence on me..."

Blake worked after college as a sort of wunderkind errand-boy for Pittsburgh Mayor Peter Flaherty. Blake stated many times that it was Flaherty's tutorial that prepared him to work with other politicans. After college, Blake had been an impulsive and ambitious young man eager to kick start a career. Flaherty calmed the young man down and taught him how to "play nicely" with others.

Finally, Blake listed venerable and witty Arizona Congressman Morris Udall as a huge influence on his personal life and personal conduct. Blake recounts in his book:

"Congressman Udall saw that I was drinking and carousing too often. He also saw that I had potential. He came to me and told me to cut out the horsesh**t and get my act together. I looked very much like a 70s football player in those days. I had long hair and sideburns; I looked kinda sloppy. Mo told me that I should maintain a stronger image for my peers to respect and my constituents to look up to. Mo basically cleaned up my life. Just in time too, because my family was about to start expanding. Mo always stuck by me, even when I moved on to the Senate and became President. He always provided counsel to me. It was really sad towards the end, Mo would lay in a bed, curled up in the fetal position. Parkinson's disease really took one of the funniest and kindest men I've ever known away. When Mo died in 1998 during my Presidency, I can't tell you how heartbroken I was. He was a special man and this country is better for having him."

[Dr. Cynic]

January 15th 1981

"Welcome to the upper house, Joey", Ted Kennedy began. "Take some time and get to know everyone here. Robert Byrd is over there talking with Mark Hatfield. You know Joe Biden. Make sure you find Dale Bumpers and Claiborne Pell. They're usually around. Scoop Jackson. Chris Dodd. Sam Nunn."

"Thanks, Senator, I appreciate you showing me around," Blake finished.

"Would you like to join me for a drink? I hear you're a guy who likes good booze."

"Nah, I'm not really drinking anymore, Ted. I like to get home early at night."

"I hear your wife is pregnant again. Any idea when it's due?"

"Not yet, it's still early. Due date is in July."

"Buddy up to Alan Cranston as well. He andByrd are responsible for comittee assignments. If you want a good one, make sure you get it while the getting is good."

"Thanks for everything, Ted."

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

I hope you're going to continue this, Doc.

[Dr. Cynic]

Added a poll above. Where would you like to see the story go?

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Added a poll above. Where would you like to see the story go?

Continue

[feeblepizza]

This is a GREAT timeline. Please, please, please go on