Er, what exactly did they used to say in Scranton?
On Oct. 19, Vice President Joe Biden, that proud son of the Pennsylvania industrial town, shared with the AFL-CIO what his "grandpop" once told him about unemployment. Explained Mr. Biden: "There was a suburb of Scranton called Minooka. He said 'When the guy in Minooka's out of work, it's an economic slowdown. When your brother-in-law's out of work, it's a recession. When you're out of work, it's a depression.'"
About 10 days later, Mr. Biden gave another talk: "My grandpop used to have an expression. We're from Scranton. He'd say -- and I mean this literally. It wasn't viewed as a joke. He said, 'Joey, when the guy in Dixon City' -- a small town above Scranton - 'is out of work, it's an economic slowdown. When your brother-in-law is out of work, it's a recession. When you're out of work, it's a depression.'"
Last week, when the White House had its jobs summit, Mr. Biden once again launched into the treasured anecdote: "There used to be an expression, and I'm not joking, my grandfather always used it. He was from Scranton, Pennsylvania. He said, 'When the guy from Throop is out of work, it's an economic slowdown. When your brother-in-law . . .'"
Mr. Biden long ago moved south to Delaware, but obviously still cares enough to make sure all the towns around Scranton get a vice presidential shout-out. Still, constantly invoking his ancestry in colorful ways that invite skepticism seems a tad risky, given his already-troubled history of borrowed familial flourishes (see the incident that chased him out of the 1988 presidential campaign).
Mr. Biden's endlessly recycled grandpop story, of course, is itself a twist on a hoary political cliché. In 1958, Harry Truman supposedly became the first president to utter the line: "It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours." Ronald Reagan at least understood what a cliché is for. He campaigned in 1980 on the clever riff: "A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. A recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his."
-- Kim Strassel
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