The Other McCain

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

Campaigner In Chief Visits Newport News Naval Shipyard

Posted on | February 27, 2013 | 15 Comments

by Smitty

One of the big constituencies that has not yet been turned into a Democrat victim constituency is the military. There are a few reasons for this:

  • The military is still sworn to support and defend the that 100+ year old document called ‘The Constitution’, as though the Dead White Dudes somehow knew that giving place to demagogues was a Bad Thing.
  • Veterans are not sufficiently obsequious in their obedience to orders from officials once beyond the UCMJ.
  • Veterans, while reliant on their buddies in the field, haven’t glommed onto the whole Life of Julia narrative of cradle-to-grave state dependency. Instead, they cling bitterly to the liberty that their oaths defend.
  • Veterans fetish the notion of national sovereignty, strangely rejecting the acceptance of a cosmopolitan Ruling Class.
  • Veterans have this weird notion that, the further up the chain of command you are, the greater the responsibility. Firings of McChrystal on active duty, and Petraeus afterward, make sense. But seeing higher ranking, elected officials held to lower standards of scrutiny is corrosive.
  • Veterans cling to traditional ????? (arete), and have violent, gagging reactions to the Socialist commitment to mediocrity, culminating in the craven abandonment of Americans under fire at Benghazi.

Certainly other facets to the problem may exist. Heritage notes the visit to Newport News, and offers the following:

Make no mistake: President Obama’s sudden interest in military readiness is too little too late. He has been cheerleading the hollowing out of our military for the past four years, and his renewed interest comes with a dangerous caveat: He wants to raise taxes.
We agree that the sequester is far from perfect, which is why the House of Representatives voted and twice passed cuts to reprogram the sequester to avoid these kinds of cuts to the military. They presented alternatives that would restore America’s commitment to national defense—without raising taxes—and address national debt in a responsible manner. Neither the President nor the U.S. Senate gave these proposals serious consideration.
The Navy and other services are already suffering serious readiness concerns. With the world certainly not safer than a few years ago, the President should not hold the defense budget hostage. The ship has already sailed on $800 billion in cuts to defense while entitlement spending continues to grow. The Administration must work with Congress to make a commitment to national security as well as fiscal responsibility before it is too late.

President Obama knows campaigning, elections, and power. Thus, his appearance in Newport News should be seen as a wink to the Tidewater area that, hey, as long as Virginia stays on the plantation, the pain will fall elsewhere. This will be important both for House races next year, and for Mark Warner’s re-election campaign.

I hope his audiences understood that the President is fundamentally mendacious, and the precise opposite of his remarks at any given time has a higher probability of approximating the truth.

via Heritage

Category: Virginia

Comments

15 Responses to “Campaigner In Chief Visits Newport News Naval Shipyard”

  1. Mirrorbliss
    February 27th, 2013 @ 5:23 pm

    RT @smitty_one_each: Campaigner In Chief Visits Newport News Naval Shipyard http://t.co/D65K6XYA5u #TCOT #TGDN

  2. jxchristopher
    February 27th, 2013 @ 5:24 pm

    MT @smitty_one_each “Campaigner In Chief Visits Newport News Naval Shipyard http://t.co/M1YEHyNG9V” < Man sure does know how to pander. #PBO

  3. DaveO
    February 27th, 2013 @ 5:27 pm

    Disagree. Our Navy’s announcement that it could not deploy the Truman group, and the move by the Army and Marine Corps to put women in the infantry, as well as the usual undermining of veteran and retiree pay and benefits show our military services and vets/retirees ARE special interest groups, and very eager to curry favor with the POTUS and campaign in Congress.
    It has been this way since 1947 NDA, and only got worse with 1986’s Goldwater-Nichols.

  4. dkmkc2000
    February 27th, 2013 @ 5:39 pm

    @jxchristopher @smitty_one_each Should be “Commie in Chief”

  5. smitty
    February 27th, 2013 @ 5:52 pm

    Concur, somewhat. The lobbying groups &c, yes, but the squids and grunts and dogfaces out there don’t care for that DC noise.

  6. richard mcenroe
    February 27th, 2013 @ 8:31 pm

    Yes, but the perfumed princes at the Pentagon…?

  7. rmnixondeceased
    February 27th, 2013 @ 10:53 pm

    … stink like whores in Church …

  8. andycanuck
    February 27th, 2013 @ 11:40 pm

    And you missed that non-citizens in the military are there legally both for working and in line for citizenship, Smitty.

  9. Adjoran
    February 28th, 2013 @ 12:28 am

    “Navy” announcements aren’t put to a vote. The Department of the Navy is controlled by political appointees who put out whatever BS the boss decrees.

  10. Adjoran
    February 28th, 2013 @ 12:28 am

    If Obama’s audiences were only aware of his mendacity!

  11. K-Bob
    February 28th, 2013 @ 2:45 am

    O/T: John Lott on Piers Morgan.

  12. K-Bob
    February 28th, 2013 @ 2:47 am

    I think Barack should tell people up front that he’s lying.

    That way, they’ll know.

    Never mind. They’re like the idiot’s solution to the old, “I am lying” paradox: Just reflexively believe every word he says.

  13. smitty
    February 28th, 2013 @ 4:35 am

    I’ve got no problem honoring them.

  14. K-Bob
    February 28th, 2013 @ 5:33 am

    For Stacy: http://xkcd.com/1157/

  15. McGehee
    February 28th, 2013 @ 8:43 am

    This.