What needs to get out is that this really isn't a slip-up; McCain's been saying for weeks, if not months, that our current perceived economic problems are partly (or mostly) just psychological and that things really aren't that bad.  Gramm's statement is entirely in line with that meme.

Wouldn't it be something if the media actually held him accountable for this?

Oh Boy. There's tape. This potentially transforms this from a 24 hour wonder to a Maccaca moment particularly against the background of the meltdown of two companies that either own or guaranteee half the nations mortgages. They are almost certainly going to have to be bailed out by the govt. Amazing how these wall st firms all come rushing to mommy govt when they are in trouble.

As a TX Dem, I take particular joy in watching this disastrous incident by the Rev Phily Gramm.

Politics often involves using phony issues.

I would do it also because it is expected and would hurt me once my opponent did likewise on another issue later.

But...

The American people are whiners.  We live in the best country ever created.  At one of the best possible times.

Even the poor have access to telephones, hot water, many have cable, healthcare, etc.

I don't want to be poor for obvious reasons, but being poor, middle class, or rich today is much better than 100 years ago.

Think of all the safety nets available.  Maybe a person doesn't want to use them but they could.

Our poor are OVERWEIGHT not underweight.  They have problems from too little exercise, too much fatty foods and sugars.

As people whine about gas prices and foreclosures,

90%+ homes are not in foreclosure.

Most people still go to the movies, the beach, have cable, eat out, send kids to camp, etc.

but they whine about gas prices

that's American.
that's fine.

but it's also a nation of whiners.

Gramm neglected to point out that the "whiners" are the large corporations who want government handouts in the form of tax credits, depletion allowances, government money to locate off shore to avoid paying taxes and to relocate businesses where cheap labor, child labor and slave labor is available.

The whiners are also the corporations that want government to stifle and eliminate competition so they can have monopoly control of the market place. Hence, hemp is illegal as it is a potential source for cheap, renewable and sustainable fuel not dependent on foreign sources.

Hemp is likewise a threat to the pharmaceutical drug cartel because many of the cannabinoids of the hemp plant have high potential for treating serious diseases such as cancer, MLS, Alzheimer's Parkinson's to name a few.

The whiners are the wealthy who pay a disproportionately lower share of their income in taxes and other sources of income that avoid taxes altogether.

The whiners are the American banks that launder up to $1.5 trillion a year in illicit drug money. They want the war on drugs kept in place to protect this economic advantage that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke won't address.

The whiners are the banks who made bad business decisions by making variable rate loans to people who could least afford them and who least understood them nor were they adequately explained of the risks involved. Banks want the taxpayers to bail them out for their bad management decisions.

Gramm himself is chief among the whiners. He wants his cake and wants to eat it too. Any movement in the direction of fairness he sees as a threat and feels justified in whining about it.