We need to cut some slack for the writer of a letter to the editor of Florida’s Hernando Today. His letter entitled “Never Say Never” was published on September 24, hours before John McCain changed his mind about the fundamentals of the American economy.
On September 17, McCain said, “If the issue is whether the U.S. had a dynamic, resilient economy, and that the long-term trends are positive, I completely agree. ... It's important not to get carried away with gloom and doom.”
Consequently, one can understand why the writer was obviously upset that Obama ridiculed McCain “based not on what he…said, but what…he… meant to say.”
He didn’t realize that, within just a few hours, McCain would be telling the American people that he’s suspending his campaign and returning to Washington, where he thinks he’s needed. Furthermore, he’s attempted to convince Barrack Obama that they shouldn’t waste their time engaging in the partisan debate planned for Friday night. McCain made it clear that he and Senator Obama need to be in Washington until the Congressional vote is cast on the $700 billion bailout for failed business decisions made by such people as Lloyd C. Blankfein, CEO of GoldmanSachs, Richard S. Fuld, CEO of Lehman Brothers and Martin J. Sullivan, CEO of the American International Group (AIG).
The writer implies that Obama wants “to divert a near institutional collapse into a blame game”. After all, the writer sarcastic implies, “Most importantly, all this has to be someone's fault.”
A tornado is nobody’s fault. A hurricane is nobody’s fault. An earthquake is nobody’s fault.
I’m not implying that the fact that Blankfein accepted compensation of $70,324,352 from his company in 2007, Fuld was happy to relieve Lehman Brothers of $34,382,036 to provide him compensation and Sullivan received a total compensation of $14,330,736, almost a poverty level paycheck, for mismanaging their respective corporations was the main reason why, as The Front Man said in his speech last evening, their companies “ran out of money needed to meet their immediate obligations”. I am saying, however, that continuing to receive this compensation while their businesses were skiing down a financially treacherous mountain at breakneck speed is a sign that they either do not have the management skills or ability to see when their businesses are headed for a collapse or they simply didn’t care, as long as they would remain absurdly wealthy.
As mentioned, the letter was published earlier in the day and was probably written and submitted days earlier. At the of composition, the writer, with tongue firmly in cheek, accused Obama of considering McCain’s outlook on the economy “inanely optimistic when pessimism is called for.” This is where we need to cut the writer some slack. After all, he didn’t know that on the evening his letter would be published, McCain would consider suspending his campaign and not engaging in Friday’s debate. This seems to me to be inanely pessimistic and alarming when patience and time for debate is what is called for. Those sound like actions one might take if one was getting “carried away with gloom and doom.”
