{"id":16157,"date":"2008-07-10T16:30:20","date_gmt":"2008-07-10T20:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/16157.html"},"modified":"2008-07-10T16:30:20","modified_gmt":"2008-07-10T20:30:20","slug":"obama-to-mccain-america-already-has-one-dr-phil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/obama-to-mccain-america-already-has-one-dr-phil\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama to McCain: ‘America already has one Dr. Phil’"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can’t give Barack Obama a slow, hanging curve, right over the middle of the plate, and expect him not to swing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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“One of his top economic advisors, former Sen. Phil Gramm, said that we’re merely in a ‘mental recession.’ That’s what he said,” Obama said, smiling. “Said we’re in a ‘mental recession.’ He didn’t say this, but I guess what he meant was it’s a figment of your imagination, these high gas prices…. <\/p>\n

“Sen. Gramm then deemed the United States, and I quote, a ‘nation of whiners.’ Whoa. Now, this comes after Senator McCain recently admitted that his energy proposals for the gas tax holiday and the drilling, will have, quote, ‘mainly psychological benefits.’<\/p>\n

“I want all of you to know that America already has one Dr. Phil. We don’t need another one when it comes to the economy…. This economic downturn is not in your head. When people are out there losing their homes, and property values are declining, that’s not a figment of your imagination — and it isn’t whining to ask the government to step in and give families some relief.”<\/p>\n

It’s one thing to go on the attack, but I’ve long felt one of Obama’s great strengths as a candidate is his ability to use humor, and frankly, mockery, to drive his point home. He’s not mad at McCain and Gramm; he just thinks they’re ridiculous.<\/p>\n

And then, of course, there was McCain’s response.
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“I don’t agree with Senator Gramm,” McCain told reporters<\/a>. “I believe that the person here in Michigan that just lost his job isn’t suffering from a ‘mental’ recession. I believe the mother here in Michigan and around America who’s trying to get enough money to educate their children isn’t whining. America is in great difficulty. We’re experiencing enormous economic challenges, as well as others. Phil Gramm does not speak for me; I speak for me. So, I strongly disagree.”<\/p>\n

Go ahead and watch both clips, turn down the volume, and take a guess which one is having a better day.<\/p>\n

As for the substance, Gramm may not speak for McCain, but McCain has brought Gramm in as his top economic advisor, and there’s been speculation in Republican circles that Gramm would be a leading candidate for Treasury Secretary in a McCain administration. McCain admits that he’s ignorant about economic matters, and also admits he relies on Gramm’s guidance on the issue. His comments, in this sense, are hardly irrelevant.<\/p>\n

As far as McCain speaking for himself, I agree — which is why it’s important to remember that McCain’s been describing our economic downturn as “psychological<\/a>” for the entire year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can’t give Barack Obama a slow, hanging curve, right over the middle of the plate, and expect him not to swing. “One of his top economic advisors, former Sen. Phil Gramm, said that we’re merely in a ‘mental recession.’ That’s what he said,” Obama said, smiling. “Said we’re in a ‘mental recession.’ He didn’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}