Maverick - The John McCain story

[keefe]

People say that Bill Clinton was pretty likable during the Vietnam War.  Maybe not as likable as Trump, but much more likeable than GWB, who was only likeable 28 days a month.

People find W's service in the Guard as a negative but he did serve. Moreover, he went through UPT at Moody AFB then the F 102 RTU. The attrition rate throughout that process exceeded 60%.

Air Guard and Air Reserve rated officers go through the same syllabus as Big Blue. Bush earned his wings and that is not an easy accomplishment.

[Jockey]

People find W's service in the Guard as a negative but he did serve.

You know better, Keefe.

Serving in the Guard is honorable now. Back then it was a simply a dodge for rich kids.

[forgetful]

I think you are wrong here. The insurance companies have said repeatedly they do not want Obamacare repealed.

And just for Lennie, it is the insurance companies that told people they could not keep their own doctor (to maximize profits), not Obamacare.

I did indeed overstate the position of the health insurance lobby.

Anthem supported the GOP plan. 

The rest stayed out of the public fray.  The plan was expected to make the insurance industry billions; they were not 100% supportive though, because the insurance industry wanted more money for themselves. 

They were definitely not excited by the GOP plan being shot down though, and that was my larger point.  I should have chosen my words more carefully.

[MU82]

McCain publicly announced a month before the election that he was not supporting Trump and would not vote for Trump.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-updates-arizona-sen-john-mccain-revokes-trump-1475961057-htmlstory.html

First of all, McCain DID endorse Trump, despite all of the candidates many faults, horrible traits, douchey tweets, lack of support of veterans, and complete dissing of McCain's military record.

https://qz.com/769818/why-john-mccain-endorsed-donald-trump-the-man-who-mocked-his-military-service/

In fact, it was Arizona's junior senator, Jeff Flake who consistently repudiated Trump, even calling the wall "nutty." McCain, meanwhile, spit out the party line: GOP voters had their say, so he will back Trump.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/05/politics/john-mccain-jeff-flake-donald-trump/index.html

It was only after the P-grabby recording became public in October that McCain finally rescinded his endorsement.

Meanwhile, with actions as a guide rather than words, McCain voted with Trump's agenda 87% of the time (even though he had been predicted to do so only 62% of the time). More significantly, he voted with Trump's agenda on all but two items through May 4.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-trump-score/john-mccain/

Only after May 4 did McCain show in his actions that he wasn't going to support Trump. And he also started forcefully criticizing many of Trump's actions and policies. In June, he said U.S. leadership was worse under Trump than under Obama, and he also started to harshly criticize all of the Russia ties Trump and his family have.

And then came the healthcare vote, a classic F-U.

So yes, I was disappointed when the "maverick" fell in line behind Trump, but proud of him that he increasingly saw what anybody with intelligence, common sense and decency saw.

I admit that maybe I'm being too hard on McCain because I expected too much of him in relation to Trump. Compared to most, he has called out the worst president in our nation's history fairly often. And for that I am grateful.

Long live John McCain!

[rocket surgeon]

  i couldn't wait for the political board to re-open-yay yay !  let's party! 

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

  i couldn't wait for the political board to re-open-yay yay !  let's party! 

The political board, like Chicos, isn't here anymore.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

The political board, like Chicos, isn't here anymore.

I chuckled

[MU82]

The political board, like Chicos, isn't here anymore.

Line of the week. Way to sneak it in before Saturday ended!

[rocky_warrior]

I know this has already been locked, but let me close this out by commenting on a moderator report we received:

Seriously Rocky. I come to Scoop partially to get away from this. Doesn't matter which side.  Please do one of two things. Either restart the politics section so I can avoid it by not going into it, or start enforcing the rules

First, let me state that this is much more than just me.  When you report things, it goes to all 4 moderators, and only occasionally am I the first one to act on the report. 

Next, we agree (mostly), that we don't want politics.  You're assuming we monitor everything that you folks post 24/7 and that's not true at all - especially on the superbar.  I read about 5% of what's posted here.  So, don't assume we're just letting political commentary happen.  Instead, assume we don't even read it or do anything about it unless it's reported.

It's really up to you guys to self-enforce. If an individual poster is going off the rails, report a few of their posts, and we'll try to resolve it somehow (anywhere from a warning to a lifetime ban, depending on the moderator's mood on that day).