McCain Adviser Refers to ‘Nation of Whiners,’ Touching Off Rebukes

[skooooo]

Source: New York Times

BELLEVILLE, Mich. — Senator John McCain has spent the week trying to tell people that he feels their economic pain. So it was more than a little unhelpful when one of his top economic advisers was quoted Thursday as saying that the United States was only in a “mental recession” and that it had become a “nation of whiners.”

The adviser, former Senator Phil Gramm, Republican of Texas, sought to clarify his remarks Thursday by saying he had been referring only to some of the nation’s leaders.

But it was too late to keep from complicating things for Mr. McCain, who has been trying to strike a more empathetic tone after sometimes struggling to maintain a balance between displays of optimism about the nation’s future and demonstrating an understanding of Americans’ economic hardships.

Senator Barack Obama, noting that Mr. McCain had previously said an expansion of offshore oil drilling might have a “psychological” benefit for the country, seized on Mr. Gramm’s remarks, made in an interview with The Washington Times.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/us/politics/11campaign.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[BridgeTheGap]

1. Whining about whiners...how special!!! n.t

[iamahaingttta]

2. I gotta agree with Gramm!

I mean, have you been listening to the Republicans for the last 20 years?
They do nothing but f*cking whine, man!
They even whine about things that they like.
I don't think that's exactly what Gramm had in mind, but he's right.
He was even whining about the notion that America is a nation of whiners!

Sheesh...

[Ganja Ninja]

5. Yeah all you have to do is mention taxes and

the pissing and moaning becomes deafening. Suggest a few reasonable ideas to control gun violence and the tears flow like the Mississippi.

[Alcibiades]

3. When will McCain renounce and reject?

This makes Rev. Wright look minor. $4.00/gallon gas has suddenly made many in the middle class feel poor, and the poor feel like it's 1933. This is beyond insensitive, as it reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of economics. When milk is $5/gallon, potatoes are $8.00/ten pound bag, and a single ear of corn is $.33, it's not mental: it's cost-push inflation, and we're going to see more of it.

[Atman]

4. This deserves two-weeks of non-stop coverage and analysis!

Just like Obama's "bitter" comment, right? Right?

*sigh*

I guess not.

.

[mdmc]

6. Our mental recession has been going on for decades

:)