U.S. Common Sense

Again the campaigns have a problem with their surrogates making life difficult for the candidates. Yesterday it was Jesse Jackson wanting to turn Obama into a eunuch, and today it was Phil Gramm calling us crybabies.

You’ve heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession. … We have sort of become a nation of whiners.

Jokes, even clever ones (such as swapping depression with recession), can come over as a lead balloon. Ok, now to be “technically” correct, our nation is not in a recession, which is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth. However, in many areas in the country, the local economy is definitely in a recession, and it is an increasing hardship on the individuals financially as gas prices rise. So if the public is whining (and we do), they have a valid reason to do so.

Now McCain was wise to denounce the comments, but he took too long and Obama was able to get the jump on him. Meanwhile, McCain allowed the Jackson comment to slide and not make an issue out of it (as he has done with a few other issues). Will this cost McCain the election? No, but it doesn’t help him.