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Dems Hammer McCain Over Econ Adviser's Claim That America Is "Nation Of Whiners"
If the Dems have their way, McCain top economic adviser Phil Gramm's claim that we're in a "mental recession" and that we're a "nation of whiners" will be the lead story of the day.
The Democratic National Committee's chief spokesperson, Karen Finney, is already out with a response...
What John McCain, George Bush Phil Gramm just don't understand is that the American people aren't whining about the state of the economy, they are suffering under the weight of it -- the weight of eight years of Bush-enomics that John McCain and Phil Gramm have vowed to continue. How dare John McCain and his advisers so callously dismiss the challenges the American people face. no wonder voters feel John McCain is out of touch, he and his campaign don't even understand the everyday issues Americans are dealing with."
Will this be a big story? Will McCain be forced to own these comments, just as the relentless press coverage of Wes Clark's non-impugning of McCain's war service came close to forcing Obama to own those?
Meanwhile, let's entertain ourselves by trying to figure out how the Associated Press will spin this one in McCain's favor. Here's my guess at what the AP's headline will be for this story:
McCain's Top Economic Adviser Speaks To The Economic Concerns of Americans
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That's solid. They shold mention McCain's private jet and such, and paint that man with every elite stroke that is his due.
July 10, 2008 10:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Let's not forget the eight homes and how they handle their personal finances. All of the hard core middle class voters need four years to pay their property taxes and have 0% interest rates on their credit cards. Oh..and have someone else pump their gas for their vechicles...It may be too early to do this but I'm suggesting that McFuddle get pounded in the airways for being so out of touch with the middle class.
July 10, 2008 11:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. Many rather stay away from anything that gives a hint of bringing up class in American society, but there are classes, and McCain is about as far as you can get from understanding the America I live in.
July 10, 2008 11:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Phil Gramm is only the architect of the subprime mortgage mess. http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/foreclosure-phil.html
July 10, 2008 10:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Don't forget the Enron debacle. His fingerprints are all over that puppy, too.
July 10, 2008 10:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nice, Greg. I can't top that for sheer subdued absurdity.
July 10, 2008 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Phil Gramm helping to write McCain's economic policy while still registered as a lobbyist barely caused a ripple so there is no way this gets any traction. Hell McCain's remarks regarding Social Security didn't get nearly the level of play it would have if Obama made the remarks.
$10 bucks says McCain or a surrogate will use the word "bitter" in any defense they put up.
July 10, 2008 10:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here's the AP Title:
"McCain Advisor Says Comments Were Own Personal Views"
July 10, 2008 10:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
The McCain camp will be allowed to clarify what he really meant and it will be accepted and glossed over as a non-story.
July 10, 2008 10:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
"How dare they?" should be the frame they use over and over.
I want surrogates out in force.
I want Obama in Ohio pouncing on this.
If there's one thing Obama's camp has lacked it's an aggressive surrogate strategy, but this is a gift, please use it.
July 10, 2008 10:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
"How dare they?" is just a little too much in the tone of shrieking in defense.
Use the language of attack, not of defense. "McCain and his surrogates think economic troubles are all in the heads of Americans. Plus, they call Americans whiners." No need for a "how dare they?" Let's tell them why they dare to say such things: A combination of total ignorance of how the working class lives, and their ties to moneyed interests who profit from the mess.
No offense, das2003, I understand the reaction. But that type of reaction puts you in a position of weakness in the minds of the people sitting on the fence. Another case of a shrieking, shrill liberal, they see.
We've got to fight for real this time. Fight to win. Protesting as you get hit is not a tactic of winners.
July 10, 2008 11:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hell Gramm is the gift that keeps on giving - If Obama and Co hit this too hard he might have to be canned. Hit it, but let McCain keep him around, so you can confront McCain with all of Gramms ridiculous remarks and claims all at once and say "Why did you keep him around" in the fall.
July 10, 2008 10:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Obama should push this like crazy. An ad running in Michigan, PA, OH, highlighting Gramm's claim that American's are "whiners" would be appropriate.
July 10, 2008 10:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
His surrogates should be all over this!
And Obama townhall today in Virginia is a great opportunity to blow these comments up.
July 10, 2008 10:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
I just wanted to add.. screw Mark Halperin! His lead atm?
"Are You Ready for Some Earlier Football?"
Let's see if this even get's a mention by Drudge 2.0
July 10, 2008 10:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
If it's not covered on Mark Halperin's "The Page," it isn't newsworthy. You guys really do need to examine how Mark Halperin's The Page has taken over from The Drudge Report in setting the newscycle.
July 10, 2008 10:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Top two stories on CNN are about Jesse Jackson's comments...
July 10, 2008 10:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Gramm's comment isn't on MSNBC--right now they're covering Jesse Ventura's reaction to Jesse Jackson comments, and more allegations about Madonna and A-Rod.
July 10, 2008 10:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Easy answers to easy questions:
No an no.
Next please.
July 10, 2008 10:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Right now, the press is tonguing McCain's asshole and loving every minute of it. All we have to do is make that shit smell, and they'll stop lapping it up.
July 10, 2008 10:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yikes!
The visual.
Yuck!
July 10, 2008 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm just waiting for the point in the campaign when McCain offers everyone in America a pony claiming it will reduce the deficit and win the war. Press coverage will focus on the fact that the Obama campaign does not have a pony plan or claim to reduce the deficit. When Obama points out that this is the most ridiculous plan ever and there aren't even enough ponies in the hemisphere for every American to have one, plus the smell! McCain will then say that he could only wish he had a pony when he was a POW and how dare Obama criticize his plan when he never wore the uniform. The press will then helpfully point out that the whole incident highlights the fact that Obama is black, black people don't like horses and that will give him trouble with white voters and horse owners.
July 10, 2008 11:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
McSame is fast becomming the teflon candidate.
July 10, 2008 10:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
these comments are not only offensive to the nation as a whole with respect to the economy, but they are also offensive to those suffering from depression.
his statements make it seem as if people that are depressed are somehow just imagining it to be so (and we think the same way about the economy) even though clinical depression is something people often have no control over.
July 10, 2008 10:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
They're also offensive to all of us whiners, too!
July 10, 2008 2:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
One benefit of the MSM infatuation with all things Obama while ignoring these idiotic comments coming out of the McCain campaign and McCain's mouth is that it will allow Obama to frame McCain's positions exactly as his campaign wants to.
Even though it sucks that every little nuanced statement from Obama is scrutinized ad nausem, the Obama campaign should be able to use it to their advantage.
July 10, 2008 10:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
If the media was doing their job, a comment like this would be The Big Scandal that a Jeremiah Wright or a Mark Penn were for the Dem candidates. This is FAR worse than anything someone's screeched from some pulpit.
July 10, 2008 10:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
The same goes for McCain's Social Security comment, and the press didn't even go after him when he said he didn't want to discuss the specifics of the Social Security plan due to "politics"
July 10, 2008 10:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
fwiw, the WaPo covered mcCain calling SS a "disgrace":
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/09/AR2008070902316.html?nav=rss_print/asection
July 10, 2008 11:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
This needs to be aired in all the key swing states ...hit the McFuddle campaign and over and over...
July 10, 2008 10:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Forclosure Phil" may be one of Obama's big assests in routing McSame. If the MSM weren't trying to create the appearance of a close race, we'd be talking about a landslide by now.
July 10, 2008 11:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Someone, maybe not the Obama campaign, but SOMEONE needs to push the fact that the McCains are worth over $100 million, own nearly a dozen homes, and spent almost $300,000 on domestic servants last year.
THIS is the guy who A) admits that he doesn't understand economics, B) "imagines" that we may be in a recession, and C) has close advisors who believe that the economy is only a make-believe problem.
July 10, 2008 11:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
McCain's Top Economic Adviser Gives Americans A Pep Talk
July 10, 2008 11:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Obama and the DNC should hammer, hammer, hammer on this. With any luck, this "whining" will be the new "clinging," but only if there's a concerted effort to put the comments in front of the public. Otherwise, the press will probably, yet again, not cover Repubs by the same standards they do Dems.
July 10, 2008 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
OBAMA, YOU MUST JUMP ON THIS!!! LETS GO!!!
REV UP THE ENGINESSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DON"T LET HALPERIN BE A LITTLE MCCAIN NOODLE SUCKER AND NOT REPORT IT!!!
July 10, 2008 11:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
The Drudgery Report home page links to Politico's story on the Grammster:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11658.html
July 10, 2008 11:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
McCain doesn't own up to statements HE made, or for that matter, votes he cast way back when he used to show up for work.
If she is still sitting in for Olbermann, Rachel Maddow will cover this. It'll be out of the media eye entirely by tomorrow.
I also suspect that when Republican voters hear a word like "whiner," their pea-brains substitute something like "liberal." After all, Gramm couldn't have been referring to THEM, they don't even like whine, they're BEER drinkers.
July 10, 2008 11:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
sorry, no rachel tonight.
July 10, 2008 11:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
One, maybe two of Glenn Greenwald's FISA rants is enough to enable anyone to pheel Phil's pain
Assuming anyone cares to
July 10, 2008 11:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I just saw that they are covering this in The Trail column/blog at the Washington Post online! Here is an excerpt:
'The interview, published today in the Washington Times, could compound the problems of the presumptive Republican nominee as he tries to show his concern for Americans struggling with six months of job losses, near-stagnant economic growth, and soaring energy and food costs. It comes after McCain appeared to call the system that has financed Social Security since its inception "a disgrace."'
July 10, 2008 12:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Obama team needs to start doing more ads featuring McCain "in his own words." The man is his own worst enemy.
I'd like to see a push for a series of town-hall style debates as soon as possible - BO and HRC had over 20, so let's have some more of that good ol' fashioned "straight talk," my friends.
Nothing will help Obama more than a side by side comparison with McCain in a real-time setting.
July 10, 2008 12:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think having a Mentos recession is such a bad thing. As the parent of a teenage boy, I don't want any more Mentos around the house. I don't let him play with his "whiner" either.
July 10, 2008 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink