Smartest thing the McCain has done in 6 months:
Former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm resigned Friday from his role as
Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s campaign co-chairman,
hoping to quiet the uproar that followed his comments that Americans
had become a "nation of whiners" whose constant complaints about the
U.S. economy show they are in a "mental recession."
–McCain adviser Gramm leaves campaign
>
Previously:
Whining US CEOs: Economy is "Dismal" (July 2008)
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/07/us-ceos-economy.html
Amity Shlaes Does Not Know What a Recession Is (July 2008)
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/07/amity-shlaes-do.html
Source:
McCain adviser Gramm leaves campaign
AP, 9:43 p.m. ET, Fri., July. 18, 2008
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25742187/
~~~
Even Gramm’s departure was graceless. What an unpleasant character.
the big question is why was he there in the first place. The Gramm’s involvement in the Enron scandal suggests that McCain is out of touch.
This was one of the major hurdles for me to support McCain. He needs to talk to Peter Schiff and bring him on board as an economic advisor. I have emailed the campaign on this as well.
The McCain’s and the Gramm’s go back a very long way and while McCain is probably as capable of political calculation as the next pol (more capable than many give him credit for I suspect) he has also been in Washington more than long enough for personal/power contacts to trump everything else …except a re-election bid of course.
>The Gramm’s involvement in the Enron scandal suggests that McCain is out of touch.
Enron? How about his involvement in UBS, which is even tighter? For me the very fact that McCain thought he was a good man for the team is more worrisome than the fact that he was there giving his crappy advice. It doesn’t hold promise that a McCain administration will have any better people than the yahoos that are currently screwing things up, that’s for sure.
4 more years.
Except he’s not really gone.
Gramm’s decison comes after word that, in his weekend column, Robert Novak was to report that the Gramm and McCain had talked subsequent to the ill-time remarks and that he’d stay on as a surrogate and adviser.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0708/Gramm_stands_down.html
I am very troubled by the ‘normalization’ of McCain we’ve seen in the last 3 weeks. He is backed by radical ideologues in both economic and foreign policy and everyone is giving him a pass. It seems like a replay of candidate Bush 2000: nice enough guy what could possibly go wrong? Look closer at who surrounds McCain, please. It’s the same republican crew that helped lead America into the impasse it is in today.
You didn’t think Bush thought up all those policies on his own did you?
This is a McStake. All this does is embolden the terrorists… er.. a… the whiners.
On a related note, Of all the vile world leaders Obama has agreed to sit down and speak to, you’d never think Bush would be one. Well, it looks like he’s sat down and convinced – not only McCain, but also – Bush, to have a timeline on Iraq… in spite of Bush’s ahem, rhetoric about “emboldening” to the contrary.
Is “emboldening” a thing of the past?
As Northern Observer comments it can not be said that Gramm has ceased to be an important advisor to McCain nor can it be said that he is removed from the short list of cabinet post candidates in a McCain presidency; e.g, “…when asked whether this meant he’d no longer advise or represent McCain, [McCain spokesman] Bounds only said that it was Gramm’s decision to step down from his co-chair post.” (http://tinyurl.com/5o45mm)
I amuse myself now and then by parsing political language for substantive content and it is fascinating how little experienced pols actually say and even more interesting how little they really commit to do in any kind of non-deniable way; when you are actually (publicly) dedicated to nothing much there is scant reason not to declare (with great vigor) that you are dedicating life, limb and sacred honor to it.
And in precisely that same vein it is interesting, as VennData notes, how both Bush and McCain are revising and/or reinterpreting their previous language on an Iraq timetable and talks with Iran now that Obama has begun to gain political traction with those two ideas. The ability to make what previously seemed unequivocal, equivocal, or even contend its meaning was opposite to previous interpretation and yet still precisely in line with a consistent philosophy of governance and personal character is part of the politician’s art.
Watching an old pol like McCain go at it, particularly now that Rove’s boys are starting to get a handle on the internal machinery of his campaign, is a real delight; there won’t be too many more off-message events like Gramm in future and you can bet your little plutocratic booties on that.
I think we’d do well by following along the trail that ‘Northern Observer’ is pointing to..
We need to understand these candidates by their fellow travelers..
for all of the talk of Change, to think that ’08 is different, in as much as, providing a true difference between (R) & (D), we better think again..maybe we can remember as far back as how ’06 worked out v. it’s pre-election billing..
Right, like he would actually step out. In McCain’s world, they don’t leave or stop getting paid or advising, they just give up the official position. He’s still there giving the same bad advice.
McCain’s economic advisers are the worst. On the economic issue alone, Obama and his advisers are the better choice.
And they can restate their language or spin all they want. McCain takes us to disaster. Just like Bush did.
As an Obama supporter (more out of disgust with the current brand of Republican loons than because of any great affection for Barack’s positions themselves) I’m greatly disappointed that McCain has ditched Gramm. I was looking forward to a constant stream of idiot comments from that little cockroach.
It is really symptomatic of a larger issue. A single individual, maverick or not, can’t run the government. It takes many, and the only ones McCain has to rely on are more of the Bush administration and congressional Republicans. Not really a change from what we have.
>> You didn’t think Bush thought up all those policies on his own did you?
>> Posted by: Northern Observer | Jul 19, 2008 10:53:25 AM
W’s signature wasn’t even on the neocon mission statement (over at the Project for a New American Century). Jeb signed it!
>> On a related note, Of all the vile world leaders Obama has agreed to sit down and speak to, you’d never think Bush would be one. Well, it looks like he’s sat down and convinced – not only McCain, but also – Bush, to have a timeline on Iraq… in spite of Bush’s ahem, rhetoric about “emboldening” to the contrary.
Contrary to claims they “don’t pay attention to polls”, the GOP leadership knows it has to change its tune fast if it has any hope to continue its policies. I firmly believe this GOP move to co-opt Obama’s ideas is a temporary display. We’re already near the end of July. Before the election, there’s only August, September and October. The Bush administration can surely “talk about talking” with Iran and make no progress for 3 months, so that after the election they can (if they win) revert their policies.
To borrow a phrase from the investing world, this Bush administration move is “end of the term window dressing”.
I am looking forward to an Obama Presidency and the Thomas.gov of Finances
and Hoffer, next step, Thomas.gov of Public Sentiment Instructed Policy
Government should be of laws rather than of men (man).
–0658,
did you mean any of the following?:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/ROLL_000.asp
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/rollcallvotes.html
http://thomas.loc.gov/
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/07/gramm-gone.html?cid=122942322
This is to avoid imbarrassment to McCain when UBS goes belly up.
This McCain character’s real hard to read…
What’s up with him rubbing it up with Romney again?
I guess you go to an election with the G.O.P. you have, not the one you wish you had.
Amity Shlaes is going to shoot a rod when she finds out that NYT economics writer Peter Goodman endorse the NBER definition of recession.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/business/economy/19econ.html?hp
ROFL !! One thing for sure is that the McCain campaign is full of hilarity. John Stewart and Stephen Colbert have had such incredible material to work with.
Phil Gramm is a bozo and John McCain looks like John McClown for having a hard core lobbyist with the sketchiest of backgounds, i.e his connections to Enron, UBS, terrible legislation (repeal of Glass-Steagall), as a key policy advisor. How anyone can think he’s not Bush’s third term is beyond me.
Here’s a little straight talk for you, John McCain. You need to get your head around this thought: the USA will have a downwards trajectory until we stop thinking we can be the world’s policeman forever !! We can’t be spending billions of dollars we don’t have doing things we shouldn’t be doing. Period. And, if you don’t get that then you’re about as sharp a tool in the shed as George W. Bush.
Of course, I think there’s a snowball’s chance in hell John McCain will ever get that notion. I think more and more Americans understand that, which is a positive. I’m sure Obama gets it, it’s just a question of whether he could be honest enough to say it without giving too much ammunition to the Republican Slime Machine. I do think that machine is dying. It would be fun to see Obama test the waters and see just how impotent the slime machine is.
not Bush’s third term is beyond me.
… thought: the USA will have a downwards trajectory until we stop thinking we can be the world’s policeman forever !! …
Why is that? What’s wrong with being the world’s policeman?
Dave – “What’s wrong with being the world’s policeman”
me – if we could figure a way to invoice it away from US taxpayers would be nice.
Hof – I was thinking of this …
excerpts from “ObamaBluePrintForChange.pdf”
“Shine Light on Washington Lobbying
Centralize Ethics and Lobbying Information for Voters: Obama will create a centralized Internet database of lobbying reports, ethics records, and campaign finance filings in a searchable, sortable and downloadable format.
Shine the Light on Federal Contracts, Tax Breaks and Earmarks
Create a Public Contracts and Influence Database: As president, Obama will create a contracts and influence database that will disclose how much federal contractors spend on lobbying, and what contracts they are getting and how well they complete them.
Bring Americans Back into their Government
Hold 21st Century Fireside Chats: Obama will bring democracy and policy directly to the people by requiring his Cabinet officials to have periodic national broadband townhall meetings to discuss issues before their agencies.”
On voting I’m pushing for binding referendum voting on many more matters, day after day, by an internet mechanism.
One vote per person, and a vote by each company, but would like the company vote to be weighted by some mechanism, like # of employees or some dollar measurement contribution to USA GDP. IMHO a PayPal type platform where the vote costs you a Washinton quarter.
Sure he distanced himself from Gramm (but is keeping him on behind the scenes), but it is his holding on to Gramm’s destructive and lunatic fringe economic policies that is the problem.