Where are the Truth-Tellers?

And if one came along to tell us the difficult-to-hear facts about our current economic, diplomatic, and military crises instead of telling us what we want to hear, would we listen? Would we care? Excerpts from an interesting op-ed in today's LA Times (hat tip to Andrew Sullivan) that suggests what McCain might say as a way to break out of the populist one-upmanship we've seen from the two candidates:

"My friends, I've done and said a lot of things these past four years to become president. I even believe in some of them. But at a time of possible economic meltdown, you need an adult to talk to you straight about economic policy. So here goes: My math doesn't add up. My promises are extravagant, and most wouldn't pass a Democratic Congress anyway. We have debts no honest country can pay, military deployments no volunteer army at current levels can continue fighting and entitlements that are going to begin crippling the budget as the baby boomers retire. We've had eight years of fantasy-based budgeting and can no longer afford it. So until we get our finances under control, until we stop growing government and the regulatory state at rates not seen since Lyndon Johnson, until we learn how to pay for such predictable outlays as war costs without circumventing the budget process and larding things up with pork, I promise you all exactly this: nothing. It sounds harsh, but drastic times call for drastic measures, and only straight talk, not campaign fantasia, can get us through this mess."

Welch closes with this gem:

How about just telling the harsh economic truth, something that Americans seem much more willing to discuss and accept than the two pander bears running for president.

Pander bears. Chuckle :)

George Will said something similar two weeks ago (my italics):

We are waist deep in evasions because one cannot talk sense about the cultural roots of the financial crisis without transgressing this cardinal principle of politics: Never shall be heard a discouraging word about the public.

Now, I'm not sure whether such a change to painful directness would work in the three weeks remaining before the election because McCain may have reinvented himself too many times over the last few months. However, the larger question remains, would we be able to listen if someone did point out our own shortcomings?