Last night, Dobbs accused the president of using "fear-mongering" and "the politics of fear" to pass the recovery bill.
Lou Dobbs is an idiot.
Fear-mongering is the exploitation of irrational and, often, artificial fear as a means to consolidate power. There's nothing fake or trumped up about the economic meltdown. People who are losing their jobs and their retirement savings and their homes are justifiably scared and action needs to be taken in order to stop the bleeding and restore the economy.
Conversely, the previous administration told daily horror stories about evildoers blowing up small towns like Zanesville, Ohio, and in doing so they manufactured irrational fear in order to go to war, to torture, to eavesdrop and to generally piss on civil liberties and our founding principles. That's fear-mongering, Mr. Dobbs.
Find me a legitimate economist who says the economy isn't tanking, and I'll burn my own book.