There’s A Word For This: Strategery

So, Phil Gramm is doing a bang-up job speaking for McCain, especially after declaring America a nation of whiners stuck only in a mental recessions. Yeah, that’s the ticket!

Even if I was pulling for McCain, and I certainly am not, this would have forced me to facepalm myself. How else can you explain somebody, in the midst of bad economic times for a lot of people, although not necessarily the economy itself, saying something so stupid? Economists never understand this sort of thing, but a person’s outlook on the economy as a whole is directly affected by their personal economic standing. If that standing is bad, then the economy is in bad shape. I guess people get bent out of shape about this sort of thinking.

What the Phil Gramms of the world need to say is something like, “We know times are tough for some of you, but we’ve got a strong nation and a purring economy and we want to connect you with it.” You don’t have to lecture your audience at all times.