Slog

Gramps--and Bush--were just hoping the meltdown could delay itself past election day, meanwhile they're bringing a feel-good message of economic prosperity to the masses.

The poor guy sure has a boner for failed gambits.

He keeps saying "The fundamentals of our economy IS strong." Jesus, Gramps. It's "are."

It would help if Mr. McCain would tell us what he thinks the fundamentals of the economy are.

he means "the fundamentalists" of the economy are strong. in fact, he/palin are counting on it.

Brilliant @4

please post as comment of the day, Dan

he means "the fundamentalists" of the economy are strong. in fact, he/palin are counting on it.

mccain's statement is meaningless. the only way the "fundamentals" of the economy could be weak would be if we'd given up the economy. it is difficult to image what that would even look like. other than, you know, bands being seized and/or bought by the government.

is there a speech writer who gets commission every time mccain uses this buzz phrase or something? or maybe mccain is really proud of "the fundamentals of our economy is strong" as a brilliant bit of wordsmithery that he came up with himself.

Even in this stitched-together montage, of the sort which can make anyone look ridiculous (conservatives have cobbled together a few of Mr Obama), a few words of explanation slipped through ... "the forces of the free market and capitalism."

Of course, it isn't in most liberals' interest to want a strong economy. Presumably, from the way they ridicule those who do, they want a weak one, so we can all stand in breadlines and compose folk songs to pass the time. A stong economy weakens people's desire to depend on All-Knowing, All-Seeing, All-Caring Government to take care of them from cradle to grave. Where's that person who calls h/hself "John Galt?"

We all know how well the government manages things. Just look at our tax system, the war on drugs, the war on poverty. I should think that any *true* liberal would want government running fewer things, not more.

If you read "The Great Crash: 1929" by John Kenneth Galbraith, you'll find that the author quotes several people as saying, before the crash, that "The Fundamentals of our economy are sound."

McCain is echoing those unfortunates of yore, merely swapping "sound" for "strong."

Seajay, I've never heard anyone, liberal or conservative, ridicule someone who wants a strong economy.

All-seeing, all-knowing government sounds like GWB's wire-tapping program to me.

The War On Drugs is Reagan's brain-child, so complain to your conservative friends about that one.

to me, he's a shit stain...

It's like he's got a pull-string in his back

Actually, the fundamentals of the economy are strong. It's the behavior of our politicians and confidence of consumers that is not strong.

and what are the fundamentals, raindrop? that a dollar bill still has value? that you can still buy something with it? because if that's what you are bragging about...

@10: Perhaps you're right. But it seems to me I hear a lot of talking up bad economic news in progressive circles. And the credit crisis is supposed to stir hope for Obama supporters? It seems to me that as the crisis gets worse, that just leaves him with even worse of a problem to solve when (and if) inaugurated. So he'll have to cut back even more on his agenda, as he said he would probably do during the first debate.

As for the rest of it, I'm no unalloyed fan of GWB or Reagan. If I were, I wouldn't have cited the War On Drugs as a failure alongside the War On Poverty. I believe everyone ought to support the candidate they sincerely like the best, no matter what party or ideology. (I realise that in this place the candidate I like best differs from the majority, but I'm used to not being in the majority.)