Most Peculiar, Momma
Earlier I commented on John “you cunt” McCain’s tactic of attempting to equate Barack Obama with Jimmy Carter. Peculiar because Carter, widely held in contempt during his presidency, has become quite admired since; peculiar because so many of his unpopular policies have proven wise and prescient, especially his attempts to wean us off of oil; peculiar because Obama so little resembles Carter in appearance, demographic appeal, or policy; peculiar above all because Carter was president so long ago that painting him as emblematic of Democratic folly does more to highlight McCain’s own advancing age than to denigrate Obama’s youthful idealism.
Perhaps he or his staff realized quickly—if not quite quickly enough—that the tactic wasn’t going to work, because it dropped from sight within a week. Snarky punditry was probably a big hint; McCain is sensitive to looking like a boob in ways Bush could never be. But maybe there was another reason.
McCain named Phil Gramm, he of the golden parachute, as his financial advisor. (A bad sign for a candidate who admits to a weak grasp of economics.) Gramm shot his mouth off last week in a claim that there was nothing wrong with our economy. The statement echoes one of Carter’s own greatest embarrassments, under very similar circumstances. When Carter characterized our economy as essentially sound, but suffering under a cloud of irrational despair, a “malaise,” he was roundly derided for this attempt to brush off a very real combination of inflation and stagnation as imaginary, although Reagan was worshipped soon after for saying essentially the same thing in his “morning in America” campaign. It’s all in the delivery, I guess—Carter seemed to be pleading where Reagan was commanding.
Gramm, of course, is a post-Reagan Republican, so, like the neocons who have grown used to unchallenged power, chose to accompany his malaise speech with abuse. Everything is fine, says Gramm, and those who think otherwise are just a bunch of whiners. (Easy for Gramm to say to losers like you; he has feathered his nest quite well with consulting and lobbying jobs from the banking firms he championed in the Senate. Also, his wife was on the Enron board of directors when he pushed legislation making the Enron scandal possible. So suck it up, whiner.)
Which does indeed leave the candidates in a situation much like Carter-Reagan showdown—with McCain on the wrong side. Both are saying the economy is basically okay, but place different spins upon it. Obama, with his message of hope and looking toward the future, is free to point to serious problems and lay blame where it belongs, promising better when he’s in office; McCain, trying to hold onto his base, is in the uncomfortable position of trying to explain why the current situation isn’t so bad, and why it isn’t his fault, anyway. Which leaves McCain looking more like Carter than the opponent he hopes to define.