The US president is occasionally quite open about his alcoholic past, so one might say he was uniquely qualified to give the diagnosis that occurred behind closed doors last week at a Republican fundraising dinner in Texas. "Wall Street got drunk," Bush told the crowd, gathered to support conservative congressional candidate Pete Olsen.
"That's one reason I asked you to turn off the TV cameras," Bush continued - although a secretly filmed copy of the remarks quickly landed on YouTube. "He's got drunk, and now it's got a hangover," Bush added, according to the NBC news transcript.
Will the president suffer a backlash from his light-hearted brushoff of an economic downturn that has left hundreds of thousands of people unemployed and in foreclosure? Unlikely; Bush admitted in February to having no clue how quickly gas prices were rising, then got away with lampooning his own ignorance last week.
But will John McCain and other Republicans facing election this year be asked whether Wall Street just needs a greasy breakfast to get back on track? You can bet on it.
