McCain campaign: Phil "Mental Recession" Gramm remains a "trusted friend"

[npincus]

"You shall judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends."-- Joseph Conrad


http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/07/11/1196048.aspx

From NBC's Kelly O'Donnell

Republican sources say they do not expect the McCain campaign to "strip" Phil Gramm of his "volunteer designation" as a co chair with the McCain campaign. At least not now.

However, other surrogates on economic policy will be "driving the policy" for McCain, sources said. Already prominent business executives Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina along with former Congressional Budget Office head Doug Holz-Eakin will speak on these issues and deal with reporters.

Gramm will not have a public role, but remains a "trusted friend of the campaign."

[ErinBerin84]

1. does anyone know the lineup for the Sunday morning shows this weekend?

Rachel seemed really pissed last night that Obama didn't bring up the mental recession thing yesterday, and called the Dr Phil joke lame. I thought it was kind of funny (I guess I have low standards, haha), butI agree that in the future, it should be a major talking point to Democrats for rest of the political season. MCCain can't just wish Gramm's influence away, its written all of his policy, plus I feel like he's still going to be giving advice to McCain...McCain relies on him too much to be a free agent at this point. Bob Herbert in his column this morning called the Dr Phil joke "cute, but inappropriate". Given the bad economic news from Friday, I think that would be a good justification for giving this storyline an extra wind in its sails if the campaign itself needs to push it farther, and also a good starting off point to educate the public on exactly WHO Phil Gramm is and WHY they should fear the lasting influence on McCain's politics. Anderson Cooper 360 did a pretty good job on the Gramm story the other day and all of the talking heads criticized him for it, but Gergen said "sure, this will go away quickly, but..." No, it's not. Then again, the Friday networks were already on the defensive, bringing out Jim Cramer as a guest every hour to try and convince us that the "economy is not THAT bad" from a technical standpoint, but does that dude have any credibility anymore? There was enough scary shit to happen on Friday that we can use it to our advantage on this particular storyline.

[npincus]

2. I agree that Obama and his surrogates should be going at this MUCH harder

this is the quotable, memorable line of this campaign season, guaranteed to deliver many votes to Obama.

[ErinBerin84]

3. kick

[Colobo]

4. I hope McShit stands by Gramm.