Blame paradigms to go

A few weeks ago, Tbogg commenter xpurg8d harrumphed.

If John McCain wins in November, I will forever blame Hillary Clinton. If Barack Obama wins but has his presidency crippled by infighting, I will blame Hillary Clinton. If Hillary Clinton wins, I will once again be sorry that my government is run by someone who has no conscience and no grace, and I will blame Hillary Clinton. [emph added]

I responded: It’s nice that you’ve worked all this out in advance.

I’ve seen the pro-Hillary version of this blame paradigm on other blogs.

If John McCain wins in November, I will forever blame Barack Obama. If Hillary Clinton wins but has her presidency crippled by infighting, I will blame Barack Obama. If Barack Obama wins, I will once again be sorry that my government is run by someone who has no conscience and no grace, and I will blame Barack Obama.

And then on Free Republic, there’s this variant paradigm: I blame John McCain.

In a way, I am proud of these people. In a nation whose government and citizens are not known for long-term planning, they took the time to calculate their blame assessments well in advance.