>why is a perpetual motion machine impossible?
>
>it's the economy, stupid."
>It's an old Presidential election quote, I think made against Dan Quayle by
>I don't remember who.
It was a note that someone (possibly James Carville) put on the wall in the
"war room" (the Clinton campaign head quarters) during the 1992
Presidential election campaign. It served to focus the direction of the
spin against George Bush. The point, of course, was that the economy was
pretty bleak and George Bush kept arguing that there was no recession. He
was technically correct but was felt by most to be out of touch. Added to
that was incessant repetition of his "read my lips" promise not to raise
taxes, which he by 1991 had broken with a vengeance .... Clinton's
campaigners thought that by focusing on the economy they could win the
election.
Pia Staunstrup