“Hey, ‘my friends,’ about the economy? ‘How about a little straight talk?’ All that palaver about cutting spending, balancing the budget? Ruinous. Can’t happen. We’re going to have to borrow and spend a boatload of money to get this economy going. And tax cuts? That won’t do it; we have to rebuild America. Getting this done is the next big fight that the next president will face. You won’t hear that from Sen. John McCain Nor is it conventional wisdom. … Barack Obama pledges an investment agenda — in new energy, in education, in rebuilding our infrastructure. Yet, he too pays tribute to the conventional, promising to scrub the federal budget, pledging that each of his spending proposals is ‘paid for,’ and vowing to bring deficits down.” (10/14/08)