The Conservatives are out in force trying to bail John McCain out from Phil Gramm's ridiculous comments---you know---about calling us all a bunch of whiners.

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Think Progress:

"Phil Gramm was right of course," Will declared. "Absolutely

WILL: On two points. ... We're not in a recession as commonly defined. That is two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

STEPHANOPOULOS: We may be running there though. Even Bernanke says so.

WILL: We're not however. Unemployment is just about the post-war average at 5.5 percent. His second point that we're a nation of whiners: we are the crybabies of the western world. In fact, we have an extraordinarily low pain threshold.

Heather says:

Stengel follows with saying that no one wants to be called a whiner and cites one of their polls on the public perception of the economy and says those statements weren't helpful. You, think? Brazile notes that McCain had to distance himself from Gramm and says Phil is mental. Roberts follows with saying that it's just the old harsh style of politics and it's the wrong year for that. Oh, and the public doesn't understand McCain's jokes.