The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

A Contrary Take On That Hypothetical McCain ’08 Victory

Posted on | July 22, 2010 | 29 Comments

by Smitty (via Insty)

The Daily Caller highlights a Quinnipiac poll finding

a plurality believe the country would have been better off if John McCain had beaten Mr. Obama in 2008

It’s all counter-factual. While unemployment might be lower, budget deficits would certainly be lower, and several trees would likely have been spared being turned into Danielle Steel novelsunread legislation, let’s float an important question: would there be Tea Parties?

I, for one, probably would not have been so incensed as to get into blogging. Rather, I’d have put down Liberal Fascism, said ‘Whew! Glad we dodged that bullet’, and continued to fail to participate in preserving the country.

No, that thud of the back against the wall is a fantastic motivator. That fantastic pack of useful idiots on JournoList, advancing the cause of the Grand Jihad, have had the effect of calling attention to how dire the situation really is. Had Stacy’s cousin been sworn in, the JournoList weenies could have continued their barking chihuahua antics while the noose tightened.

Now, the United States has some awareness of just how bad things are, with at least a shot at turning the situation into the trough of a sine wave, instead of a tangent line to hell.

There may have been some left-handed wisdom in having the media go all-in to elect BHO. With the Internet increasing communication amongst Americans, they may have awakened, even in a McCain administration. 2008 may have been a now-or-never year for the neo-Socialists, or whatever label you can affix to a bag of greased snakes.

In any case, this post is stating, for the record, that calling everyone’s bluff with a BHO inauguration is the better long-term path for the country. When you’re so far from sober government that doing multi-ream legislative shots at the Congressional bar seems a good idea, it’s time to purge, purge, purge.

November is coming. Three months and twelve days to energize Americans.

Category: Uncategorized

Comments

29 Responses to “A Contrary Take On That Hypothetical McCain ’08 Victory”

  1. The Constitutional Crusader
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 12:38 am

    Well said, Smitty. Check out my new post at Confessions to find out the latest hollywood stupidity.

  2. The Constitutional Crusader
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 8:38 pm

    Well said, Smitty. Check out my new post at Confessions to find out the latest hollywood stupidity.

  3. paul mitchell
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 12:41 am

    I held my nose to vote for McCain and thought the exact same thing that you just wrote, Smitty.

    I agree entirely. It is eye-opening to see exactly how terrible the Smartest President in History is at understanding mathematics, economics, philosophy, history, and science.

  4. paul mitchell
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 8:41 pm

    I held my nose to vote for McCain and thought the exact same thing that you just wrote, Smitty.

    I agree entirely. It is eye-opening to see exactly how terrible the Smartest President in History is at understanding mathematics, economics, philosophy, history, and science.

  5. jefferson101
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 12:47 am

    Perzactly, Sir!

    JMac would have been another soporific dose to the sensibilities of most “middle-of-the-road” folks. And there are a whole lot of folks who will pretend to be in the “middle” regardless of their real beliefs. There’s a whole lot of delusion out there, and GWB took advantage of it. So would JMac have.

    But now, push has come to shove, and those folks have to decide if they are on the side of the Angels, or the side of the Devil.

    More and more of us can see the mouth of the Socialistic Hell that is being brought upon us opening to swallow our Republic. Awareness is good.

    Resistance is spreading. One can only hope that enough real Americans remember what this Nation is about. I think they will.

  6. jefferson101
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 8:47 pm

    Perzactly, Sir!

    JMac would have been another soporific dose to the sensibilities of most “middle-of-the-road” folks. And there are a whole lot of folks who will pretend to be in the “middle” regardless of their real beliefs. There’s a whole lot of delusion out there, and GWB took advantage of it. So would JMac have.

    But now, push has come to shove, and those folks have to decide if they are on the side of the Angels, or the side of the Devil.

    More and more of us can see the mouth of the Socialistic Hell that is being brought upon us opening to swallow our Republic. Awareness is good.

    Resistance is spreading. One can only hope that enough real Americans remember what this Nation is about. I think they will.

  7. Anne B.
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 12:56 am

    McCain would have been better in at least one area: foreign policy. He gives off enough of a crazy-old-coot vibe that Putin and the mullahs would have been kept off balance, and perhaps our allies (say, the Brits and the Israelis) would have had confidence in his doing the right thing.

    Not with Barry, of course. They know they can crap all over him, and nothing will happen.

  8. Anne B.
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 8:56 pm

    McCain would have been better in at least one area: foreign policy. He gives off enough of a crazy-old-coot vibe that Putin and the mullahs would have been kept off balance, and perhaps our allies (say, the Brits and the Israelis) would have had confidence in his doing the right thing.

    Not with Barry, of course. They know they can crap all over him, and nothing will happen.

  9. just a conservative girl
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 10:30 pm

    I have been saying this for over a year now. McCain would have driven to the exact same place, he just would have used the scenic route that lulled all of us to sleep.

  10. just a conservative girl
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 2:30 am

    I have been saying this for over a year now. McCain would have driven to the exact same place, he just would have used the scenic route that lulled all of us to sleep.

  11. Adobe Walls
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 2:53 am

    IMAO Obama created much more alarm among average Americans and nearly terror and mortal dread among those of us who have an idea of what the Social Democrats really have in store for us in the long run.
    My fear is that the average American still doesn’t grasp the truly mortal nature of the danger to our Republic and our freedoms. Some who may have read comments wherein I refer to 1894 instead of 1994. In 1894 the Republicans gained 130 House seats. For me to take heart from November’s election results doesn’t require the Social Democrats loosing 130 seats. However I feel it’s crucial that a ridiculously large number of seats change hands in the house. Angle’s successful election in Nevada is also a crucial sign of understanding not because she’s not extremely right wing but because she is. The same logic applies to Rand Paul in Kentucky. If swing vote independents can’t support some of the more “out there” conservatives then we can probably be sure the necessary rightward lurch is not possible through the ballot box.
    For me to see actual progress virtually all Democrats running for any position in the southern third of the Gulf States and any office in Arizonia should be defeated.

  12. Adobe Walls
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 10:53 pm

    IMAO Obama created much more alarm among average Americans and nearly terror and mortal dread among those of us who have an idea of what the Social Democrats really have in store for us in the long run.
    My fear is that the average American still doesn’t grasp the truly mortal nature of the danger to our Republic and our freedoms. Some who may have read comments wherein I refer to 1894 instead of 1994. In 1894 the Republicans gained 130 House seats. For me to take heart from November’s election results doesn’t require the Social Democrats loosing 130 seats. However I feel it’s crucial that a ridiculously large number of seats change hands in the house. Angle’s successful election in Nevada is also a crucial sign of understanding not because she’s not extremely right wing but because she is. The same logic applies to Rand Paul in Kentucky. If swing vote independents can’t support some of the more “out there” conservatives then we can probably be sure the necessary rightward lurch is not possible through the ballot box.
    For me to see actual progress virtually all Democrats running for any position in the southern third of the Gulf States and any office in Arizonia should be defeated.

  13. Adobe Walls
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 2:58 am

    Gigi: throwing Bush in our faces is a straw-man argument, most who opine here have little more regard for Bush than for Obama.

  14. Adobe Walls
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 10:58 pm

    Gigi: throwing Bush in our faces is a straw-man argument, most who opine here have little more regard for Bush than for Obama.

  15. Adobe Walls
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 3:00 am

    We wing-nuts don’t believe in utopias that’s a leftist fantasy.

  16. Adobe Walls
    July 22nd, 2010 @ 11:00 pm

    We wing-nuts don’t believe in utopias that’s a leftist fantasy.

  17. Estragon
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 5:30 am

    Quite correct in the whole: it would have been unlikely to have been able to mount the anti-government effort from the grassroots if McCain had been elected. Of course, the premise relies upon the faith we will face no foreign policy crises, and Obama still has nearly 2.5 years to screw that up, beginning with Iran’s nukes.

    By the same token, it would serve our long-term interests best to fall just short of taking the House and Senate in November, winning just enough votes to block the most odious initiatives but without giving Obama a “do-nothing Republican Congress” to run against.

  18. Estragon
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 1:30 am

    Quite correct in the whole: it would have been unlikely to have been able to mount the anti-government effort from the grassroots if McCain had been elected. Of course, the premise relies upon the faith we will face no foreign policy crises, and Obama still has nearly 2.5 years to screw that up, beginning with Iran’s nukes.

    By the same token, it would serve our long-term interests best to fall just short of taking the House and Senate in November, winning just enough votes to block the most odious initiatives but without giving Obama a “do-nothing Republican Congress” to run against.

  19. Charles Johnson
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 5:37 am

    You go Kejda gg!

  20. Charles Johnson
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 1:37 am

    You go Kejda gg!

  21. Kate
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 2:00 pm

    How do we back out of this mess? We are probably stuck with a renovated nation wherein all of the renovations are tacky, degraded and irreversible. These guys have made structural changes to government and I don’t see how we are going to painlessly undo them.

    “No, that thud of the back against the wall is a fantastic motivator.” is a great line, but the nation has the motivation to do what, exactly? We are in an even bigger hole than before; how the heck are we going to get out of it?

  22. Kate
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 10:00 am

    How do we back out of this mess? We are probably stuck with a renovated nation wherein all of the renovations are tacky, degraded and irreversible. These guys have made structural changes to government and I don’t see how we are going to painlessly undo them.

    “No, that thud of the back against the wall is a fantastic motivator.” is a great line, but the nation has the motivation to do what, exactly? We are in an even bigger hole than before; how the heck are we going to get out of it?

  23. Dean
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 2:14 pm

    If McCain had won, then I would be taking a different tact instead of the Tea Party movement. I was disgusted with the fact that he got the nomination. That alone made me want to do something more active in politics to change things, the Tea Party just became the means.

  24. Dean
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 10:14 am

    If McCain had won, then I would be taking a different tact instead of the Tea Party movement. I was disgusted with the fact that he got the nomination. That alone made me want to do something more active in politics to change things, the Tea Party just became the means.

  25. David W. Walters
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 7:46 pm

    RE> “…..While unemployment might be lower, budget deficits would certainly be lower…”
    Might be lower. I wonder what McCain would have done to achieve that? Cut taxes for the top 2% some more perhaps? That sure worked its magic the last time it was tried. And how would a tax cut like that translated into a lower deficit? The previous tax cut for the rich sure didn’t do anything to reduce our deficit…..in fact it raised it. This is why it is called VooDoo economics my friend!

  26. David W. Walters
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 3:46 pm

    RE> “…..While unemployment might be lower, budget deficits would certainly be lower…”
    Might be lower. I wonder what McCain would have done to achieve that? Cut taxes for the top 2% some more perhaps? That sure worked its magic the last time it was tried. And how would a tax cut like that translated into a lower deficit? The previous tax cut for the rich sure didn’t do anything to reduce our deficit…..in fact it raised it. This is why it is called VooDoo economics my friend!

  27. Ed Driscoll » White House in Panic Mode
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 5:02 pm

    […] as Mencken once said, “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” Filed under: Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal, Liberal Fascism, The Future and its […]

  28. Randy Rager
    July 24th, 2010 @ 2:08 am

    Ironically enough, a McCain victory would have been exactly what the Leftards want: permanent consignment of the Republican Party to the political wilderness.

    Four years of THAT douchebag would convince just about anyone (by which I mean real Americans, not Democrats or “Progressives”) to vote Libertarian or Constitution Party. Unfortunately for the country, neither of those Parties is staffed with anyone blessed by anything approaching competence.

  29. Randy Rager
    July 23rd, 2010 @ 10:08 pm

    Ironically enough, a McCain victory would have been exactly what the Leftards want: permanent consignment of the Republican Party to the political wilderness.

    Four years of THAT douchebag would convince just about anyone (by which I mean real Americans, not Democrats or “Progressives”) to vote Libertarian or Constitution Party. Unfortunately for the country, neither of those Parties is staffed with anyone blessed by anything approaching competence.