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They told me if I voted for John McCain

Jul 28th, 2012 by

Instapundit has a running meme, “They told me if I voted for (Insert name here – usually John McCain, lately.)…. But, this one, in greeting card form, has to hurt.

Posted in Culture

12 Responses to “They told me if I voted for John McCain”

  1. John E. says:
    July 29, 2012 at 9:55 am

    Speaking of former VP Cheney –

  2. JMK says:
    July 29, 2012 at 11:23 am

    Dick Cheney appears right on Palin, as he was on a wide range of issues. I kind of figured JE (or maybe Steve) would boost Cheney’s positive bona fides, so I won’t pile on here. Suffice to say that I agree that Cheney’s distinguished record as a key Corporatist go-between (linking American industry with government) and his exemplary judgment pretty much speaks for itself.

    What I NEVER fully understood was the so-called “liberal” opposition to Cheney’s purported “business interests.” I don’t think many of those folks were ever true “liberals” at all!

    After all, Dick Cheney was fully divested from Halliburton before accepting the VP nod, just as Mike Bloomberg is divested from Bloomberg Enterprises while Mayor of NYC.

    Yes, Bechtel, KBR and other Halliburton subsidiaries DID receive some no-bid government contracts over the Bush years, BUT they STILL received them under Obama!

    Obama administration approves No-Bid Halliburton Contract…; “KBR Inc. was selected for a no-bid contract worth as much as $568 million through 2011 for military support services in Iraq, the Army said. (http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2e1_1273440915)

    In MY view, since there’s NOTHING wrong with the Obama administration rewarding Halliburton, there couldn’t have been anything wrong with the previous administration doing it either. I always suspected I was right about that “Halliburton Scandal” amounting to nothing, I’ve only become even more sure of it since then.

    Saying that, I AM very much aware of Halliburton’s legitimate “Nigeria Problem” (http://wonkette.com/432543/halliburton-paying-25-million-to-nigeria-for-dick-cheney-br) AND now former Halliburton subsidiary KBR’s attempts to privatize Britain’s Surrey and West Midlands police forces (http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_bigbrother99.htm). . .but those incidents are strictly BUSINESS, nothing personal at all.

    I’m with JE (and hopefully Steve, as well) on this – Cheney may not be the most engaging guy in the world, but he has great business acumen AND excellent personal judgment.

    One thing about those “If I Voted For…” cards. . .I haven’t seen them all, BUT McCain COULD NOT have been able to have increased the use of drones, rendition, doubled down on the Bush-Pelosi-Reid economic agenda and so seamlessly delivered “G W Bush’s 3rd Term” the way Barack Obama has.

    The ONLY thing that’s changed (slightly) is that different Corporate denizens are feeding at the trough now. Instead of RJ Reynolds and Exxon-Mobil, today it’s BP & Goldman Sachs.

    Personally, I’m more an Exxon-Mobil, Chevron guy, and I revile Goldman Sachs, but for most folks, that’s all just green team vs yellow team stuff.

  3. JMK says:
    July 29, 2012 at 11:30 am

    Now THIS ONE is a good one, as well; “THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, PEOPLE WHO CRITICIZED THE PRESIDENT WOULD FEAR FOR THEIR LIVES. AND THEY WERE RIGHT!. . . .Brad Pitt’s mom in fear after slamming Obama.”

    All of the ones I’ve seen are poignant (even when they’re not all that funny. . .the truth does hurt), but we’ve been headed in a certain direction for a long while now and it doesn’t much matter who’s in the Oval Office, as that’s the path we’re set to sail on.

    The people in for the rudest awakenings (IF there are actually any of them left) are those simpletons who bought into the nonsense about “the Democrats being more FOR the PEOPLE,” or “the Democrats being LESS Corporatist than the GOP”. . .the Democrats have raised more Corporate (and especially Wall St) cash than the GOP for eons!

    BOTH major Parties are fully invested in Corporatism (the partnership between industry and government). In that sense, “We are ALL Corporatists NOW.”

  4. John E. says:
    July 29, 2012 at 11:36 am

    I’m with JE (and hopefully Steve, as well) on this – Cheney may not be the most engaging guy in the world, but he has great business acumen AND excellent personal judgment.

    Meh – mostly I think he is a narcissistic psychopath who would send thousands of soldiers to fight in a pointless war if he thought it would advance his perceived self-interests.

  5. JMK says:
    July 29, 2012 at 12:59 pm

    “mostly I think he is a narcissistic psychopath” (JE)
    .
    .
    WoW! So we DO seem to disagree somewhat!

    I really don’t get that, though.

    IF Bush-Cheney were “bad” for invading Iraq and Afghanistan. . .and Obama-Biden ran on ending those wars, then in the eyes of any PRINCIPLED anti-war person, Obama-Biden are actually WORSE for choosing INSTEAD to ratchet UP both wars (as well as greatly increasing drone attacks, increasing the use of rendition, keeping Gitmo OPEN, etc)!

    Of course, the operative word there is “principled.”

  6. JMK says:
    July 29, 2012 at 1:12 pm

    Principle DOES indeed seem to be in very short supply today.

    This holding the Bush and Obama administrations to such different standards is very similar to MediaMatters’ lack of principle. .

    David Brock (founder of MediaMatters) has often said “It’s not that FNC is ‘too Conservative,’ in fact, the newsmedia SHOULD BE far more Conservative than FoxNews actually is! FNC actually serves as diversion, from the majority of America’s much more severe, even Puritanical brand of Conservatism.”

    I’ve often suggested, IF that’s the case, then let’s ALL fight for much MORE Conservative control of the media. I’m no doubt more “liberal” than just about anyone here (I’m ALMOST ashamed to say that..pro-gay rights, pro-abortion, even pro-retroactive abortion in many cases) and even I acknowledge that the media must FOLLOW public opinion and NEVER seek to “shape” or “guide” it. Warren G. Harding’s Secretary of State & political guru Harry M. Daugherty was right when he said, “Gimme a plumber or a dock-worker over a College Professor any day. The common mill worker has more common sense in his little finger than a dozen University professors do combined.”

    I agree whole-heartedly, you DON’T want these pseudo-”elites” looking to guide or shape the opinions and views of people who actually have MORE common sense and, all too often, GREATER insights than they do. . .do we?

    As an example, I personally can think of nothing worse than a newsmedia in a Sharia-based region condemning the time-honored stonings, beheadings and honor-killings of young girls who disgrace their families by getting raped, that are customary under that legal/moral system. In THAT society, the basic JOB of the newsmedia is the SAME as it is ANYWHERE – to reflect, even HONOR those traditions and the prevailing popular opinion and NOT seek to alter it.

    The idea that some kid with a “journalism degree” (no math required there, right?) has some “right” to seek to guide/shape the public opinion of his/her fellow men should be absurd to any serious thinking person!

    I know I’m a pretty amoral person and all, but OK, I’ll say it, We NEED to get back to principle.

  7. steve2 says:
    July 29, 2012 at 5:08 pm

    I dont know that much about Cheney’s tenure at Haliburton. By all accounts, it worked well. I think he probably worked to make sure the oil companies got their subsidies, but that is how politics is played. Still, I think he was a pretty standard Republican on domestic issues (deficits dont matter), right on some things and wrong on others.

    Where I was disappointed was in his foreign policy. I thought he was solid under Bush I. I think he panicked after 9/11. I suspect that his history of personal cowardice came into play. He got 5 deferments to stay out of Vietnam. So, when we got attacked on his watch, he went overboard with attacking Iraq and pushing torture (he appears to have been the key force behind this).

    “IF Bush-Cheney were “bad” for invading Iraq and Afghanistan. . .and Obama-Biden ran on ending those wars, then in the eyes of any PRINCIPLED anti-war person, Obama-Biden are actually WORSE for choosing INSTEAD to ratchet UP both wars”

    I have never seen evidence of the current admin ratcheting up the Iraq war. Do you have references for that?

    Steve

    • John E. says:
      July 30, 2012 at 6:58 am

      Reports suggest Cheney always travels with a hazmat suit. The dude has issues.

      I’m not sure if deferring ones way out of Vietnam is evidence of cowardice or of plain common sense. There wasn’t anything in Vietnam worth an American fighting for or dying over.

      Maybe it would have been better if every young man of his age had valued his own life and autonomy over the spurious claim that Vietnam was vital to America’s national security and gamed the system like Cheney did to stay out.

      Of course, a PRINCIPLED fellow would just have refused to go or moved to Canada.

      • JMK says:
        July 30, 2012 at 4:13 pm

        “Maybe it would have been better if every young man of his age had valued his own life and autonomy over the spurious claim that Vietnam was vital to America’s national security and gamed the system like Cheney did to stay out.

        “Of course, a PRINCIPLED fellow would just have refused to go or moved to Canada.” (JE)
        .
        .
        No, not really!

        It seems College deferments were widely available. I knew a guy who was nineteen when I was just starting HS (1969) who got 4 of them in succession….he kept changing his major. No reason to go to Canada. . .UNLESS you couldn’t get into College.

        But again, we weren’t talking about any politician’s “principles” (they generally have none) we were talking about those who naively hold Bush and Obama to two different standards without justification.

    • JMK says:
      July 30, 2012 at 4:07 pm

      You never heard of the “Obama Surge”???

      Get ready for an eye-opener: (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/world/asia/06reconstruct.html?pagewanted=all)

      BOTH theaters were ratcheted up and more drone attacks targeted our “enemies” in places like Kuwait, Yemen and Pakistan. We even targeted U.S. civilians for death under Obama (NEVER under Bush/Cheney….I think you might be right about Cheney being a friggin pussy). Check out (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/30/us-born-terror-boss-anwar-al-awlaki-killed/) – the Obama administration was the FIRST to target U.S. citizens for death abroad. Anwar al-Awlaki, Scumbag esquire was killed by a U.S. drone in Yemen last year.

      Steve, I get the VERY strong impression that you’re about as “anti-war” as I am. . .which translates into “VERY PRO-war….for profit.”

      I’m a good old “IGM” kind a guy – “I’ve Got MINE….Sucks to be you,” if you’re on the other side of a drone or two. On that score, I think we’re “birds of a feather.”

      Like I said (and have clearly SHOWN) NO ONE could’ve done anything close to the job of delivering G W Bush’s 3rd Term better than Obama/Biden! I LIKE very much the continuation of “the Bush Doctrine” abroad, BUT I very much DO NOT LIKE the continued Bush-Pelosi-Ried Economic agenda here at home.

      Obama was the “perfect” foreign policy choice. After all, the media would’ve crucified McCain for doing HALF as much and even Hillary would’ve been hamstrung on a lot of this. I can’t imagine the Press NOT going after HRC had she been President when U.S. citizens were targeted abroad by our own Military drones.