Obama should jump on that immediately. Gramm has never been known as a friend of the working man. It's time Gramm got sent packing, for good.

Phil Gramm was also behind the lax regulations of the mortgage and banking industries that brought us the lovely subprime debacle.

Gramm was the dude, while still in the Senate, who helped liberalize financial regulations that largely led to the sub-prime mortgage mess, so he might want to shut up about telling people who just lost their home that it's all in their minds.

If McCain wanted to be president you would think his campaign would put a big muzzle on Gramm for that very reason. But this, on top of McCain's public acknowledgment that he doesn't know how Social Security works only says to me that this guy would rather stay in the Senate.

We have sort of become a nation of whiners

Thank God the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day.

Wow. This will be quite a challenge for the 'what he obviously meant' McCain bbq press, but they are well-practiced.

You didn't even pull out the worst quote, when he says:

"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"

"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"

It's very true, though. We do whine a lot for being such a wealthy, well-fed nation.
Which isn't to say that some people aren't troubled or in despair, they undoubtedly are.
The two ideas aren't mutually exclusive.

Revisiting Carter's malaise moment perhaps?

I feel your pain and it is fake.

The premise of his analogy isn’t even correct. There’s no such thing as “mental depression.” There’s a psychiatric condition called depression; it’s a frequently-serious medical problem that should get treated.

Revisiting Carter's malaise moment perhaps?

I feel your pain and it is fake.

Revisiting, except that Carter played the role of the friendly, "we're all in this together" preacher, not the "Every man for himself" ("I've done all I can, Lord, those dolts are Your problem now") preacher.

Not to pile on, but John and Cindy are a power couple, as are Phil and Wendy Gramm. Gotta wonder how far down the list the McCain campaign has to go to find someone who pumps their own gas or doesn't check the stock tables every hour.

Maybe there's a gofer who's not rich who can prompt them on how to talk to commoners.

Wouldn't it have been simpler for him to just say "Fuck you. I'm rich, why aren't you? Suck it up."

Wouldn't it have been simpler for him to just say "Fuck you. I'm rich, why aren't you? Suck it up."

It would be, until the WSJ filed suit for unauthorized use of a trademark.

(/rimshot)

Wouldn't it have been simpler for him to just say "Fuck you. I'm rich, why aren't you? Suck it up."

Well, in my defense, there's a distinct lack of adulterous beer heiresses hanging around my neighborhood, so I can't quite use the patented McCain Method(tm) of achieving wealth.