Friday, July 11. 2008The View from the Couch: CastratorsThings continue to come apart at the seams. The economy, John McCain's campaign, Barack Obama's happy campers, what's left of the Bush II administration. Is it just the wild fires of the summer, or a continuing trend? In McCain's case, it well might be scorched earth forever. Phil Gramm, the former Senator from the great state of Texas and McCain's national co-chair, said we have become a "nation of whiners" and what's going on out there is only a "mental-recession." Gramm is one of the more unpleasant people still functioning as a public figure, even though he's a vice chairman of a Swiss bank, UBS. To Gramm and his friends it certainly is a mental-recession, since whatever happens won't leave them gas-less. Gramm has expended too much gas in his time in the Senate, pushing laws through that set the stage for the subprime mortgage collapse. That is, when he wasn't getting laws through as he left the senate to ease the way for his wife's trips to corporate board heaven. Having him around continues to make McCain look like a stooge for all things Republican at its worst. McCain does a passable job at connecting with average folk, since he doesn't always come off as the elite scion he actually is. Gramm is a buffoon on wheels, though a successful one. McCain has attempted to put "distance" between himelf and Gramm, but it's the distance between A and B. And then there's Jesse Jackson, an equivocal champion of Barack Obama, caught on film once again. Jackson has a long history of being embrassed by an open microphone ("Hymietown" comes to mind), but the latest is a dozy. The "cut his nuts out," Barack's that is, remark is a bit much, given the history of blacks in America. But Jackson and Bill Clinton are nursing the same hurt (not, decidedly, the nuts problem): both feel mightily displaced and had Hillary been the nominee to be, both Jesse and Bill would be rolling in clover. And that's a hard nut to crack. And the Bush II administration had one show of knowing something and then had to immediately apologize for it. A briefing book, a press kit, for the journalists touring with George W., made news because it accurately described Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, as the scoundrel he is, or "controversial," as the briefing book put it, opining that Berlusconi won his office through the manipulation of the media since he is a reigning media baron. A colorful figure, indeed. But, because it was true, it had to be quickly disowned once it became public. The Bush administration will doubtless go back to providing everyone with its usual disinformation, since when it utters the truth they have to run from it. The summer appears to be less fun for everyone. There is a mood of wanting it all over, if possible. November and election day can't come soon enough Trackbacks
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