Remember when John McCain said “the fundamentals of our economy are strong” during the election? Everyone jumped on him with both feet. You couldn’t find enough fauxtrage in the world to cover it. It was thrown at McCain again and again in an attempt to paint him as “out of touch” and the media loved every minute of it. In fact, the day he made those comments, the Obama team jumped on him:
Today of all days, John McCain’s stubborn insistence that the ‘fundamentals of the economy are strong’ shows that he is disturbingly out of touch with what’s going in the lives of ordinary Americans. Even as his own ads try to convince him that the economy is in crisis, apparently his 26 years in Washington have left him incapable of understanding that the policies he supports have created an historic economic crisis.
Wow. Harsh words. No doubt what that means, right?
This weekend, President Obama had a meeting with a bunch of folks with regards to the US economy. In it, he said the following:
“There’s a reason why even in the midst of this economic crisis you’ve seen actual increases in investment flows here into the United States,” Obama said. “I think it’s a recognition that the stability not only of our economic system, but also our political system, is extraordinary.
The stability of our economic system is extraordinary? Sounds a lot like saying the fundamentals of our economy are strong, doesn’t it? If you’re honest, you can’t argue otherwise; but that would of course mean that you’re being honest. Oh yeah, and in case there’s any ambiguity as to what President Obama meant with the above statement, he clarified it as well.
“I think that not just the Chinese government, but every investor, can have absolute confidence in the soundness of investments in the United States,” he added.
I guess that means that the fundamentals of our economy are strong, and that lots of people owe John McCain an apology or that Barack Obama is dead wrong and out of touch and he’s owed some scorn; I just won’t hold my breath looking for either one.