A funny thing happened on the way to making my last post... it got postponed on account of epiphany, hopefully coming out this weekend. In the meantime, I couldn't help taking note of where Phil Gramm (the guy I wanted when Dole ran... and I wished he ran when W did) recently made the mistake of calling like it is, while attached to a candidate, McCain, who prefers his straight talk to have much more of a curvy feel to it.
"Look, the economy is bad. It is far below what we Americans have a right to expect, but we are not in a recession," he said. "We may or may not have one in the future, but based on the data we are not in a recession. But that does not mean all this talk does not have a psychological impact."
Gramm stirred up controversy when he called the nation's economic malaise a "mental recession," then added, "We have sort of become a nation of whiners," he said. "You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline."
"When I said we've become a nation of whiners, I'm talking about our leaders. I'm not talking about our people," he said. "We've got every kind of excuse in the world about oil prices -- we've got speculators, the oil companies to blame -- but too many people don't have a program to get on with a job of producing."
"If you listen to our leaders, we can't compete against Mexico, for God's sake," Gramm continued. "If they don't think we can compete against Mexico who can we compete against?"
"I'm not going to retract any of it. Every word I said was true," Gramm said.
To which the New York Times, HuffPissed, Obamama and others replied:
No we're not! uh-uhh! Who do you think you are, Dr. Phil!? Meanie!!!
Bob's your uncle... or taking the McCain straight curve route, "bob's your aunty's live-in lover."
Of course, Gramm is right. Our leaders are in a mental recession.
ReplyDeleteGulf Oil's president picks up where Gramm left off: "Cut the crap and start thinking again" (and acting like leaders.)
I am reminded that I once told my granddaughter she was a tattle-tale. Her response was to run to her grandmother and say, "Poppy called me a tattle-tale."
ReplyDeleteI am also reminded of certain of my in-laws who have the gift of finding the cloud in every silver lining.
There should be an equivalent of Godwin's Law for those invoking the Great Depression every time the markets take a hit or some company cuts jobs. People would be dousing themselves in creme brule' and setting themselves on fire if anything like the Depression came back.