. . . At one point last night -- was it during the discussion of Social Security? -- one of the candidates referred to the unreality of the talkathon, but bankruptcy seemed to me the more appropriate metaphor. Senator Gravel found a way to salute himelf for his personal and business bankruptcies:
“Well, first off, if you want to make a judgment of who can be the greediest people in the world when they get to public office, you can just look at the people up here,” Gravel said in a nod to his fellow candidates.
“Now, you say the condo business,” he continued. “I will tell you, Donald Trump has been bankrupt 100 times. So I went bankrupt once in business. And the other – who did I bankrupt? I stuck the credit card companies with $90,000 worth of bills, and they deserved it – “
"They were stupid enough to loan money to me!"
“They deserved it,” Gravel repeated, “and I used the money to finance the empowerment of the American people with a national initiative.”
Byron York salutes Gravel:
GravelÂ’s answer was unprecedented in the history of these debates, and, if nothing else, it seemed guaranteed to win him at least a share of the insolvent vote, even among those who have stuck credit card companies for debts far more prosaic than empowering the American people with national initiatives.
But York misses Gravel's magnanimity. He went bankrupt for us! It seemed to me an emblematic moment.