"That's No Angry Mob, That's My Mom" Is the Title of Michael Graham's New Book (You Know, The One That Doesn't Mention Imus)

Though he’s sorely disappointed that Obama-care passed over the weekend, Michael Graham marveled at the serendipitous timing that his book, That’s No Angry Mob, That’s My Mom, about Obama’s assault on “tea-party, talk-radio Americans,” should be released the following week.

The most telling moment of this past weekend’s ugliness, in Graham’s view, came Sunday afternoon in Washington, as the House prepared to pass health care reform.

“It was that arrogant march by Nancy Pelosi and her allies through the crowd of citizen going, ‘Please don’t do this! Please listen to us!’” said Graham. “And that haughty, let-them-eat-cake attitude, that thumb in the eye, captures the entire arrogant, elitist attitude that’s driven politics since the election of President Obama.”

Those so-called elitists, Graham continued, “have been wrong again and again, and the normal, typical folks like my mom have been right again and again.”

The best approach to health care reform would be to unleash the free market, and Graham used cell phones as an example of this method’s success: they went from being the size of a small computer to being the size of a pin, and costing one-tenth the price.

“That’s what happens with the free market,” he said. “We’re going the other way.”

As for the bad reputation garnered by the Tea Party activists, many of have been charaged with using racial slurs and other derogatory comments at protests, Graham said those claims are unfounded attempts to silence people.

“You know what happens if I call you a racist?” he said. “I don’t have to explain how I can cut $500 billion from Medicare, and make it better, and spend the money somewhere else, and put it all in the lottery, and take myself to Hawaii for vacation. I don’t have to explain any of that when I’m calling you a bigot.”

The only way to turn this train around is for the “regular” people to show up at the polls in November. “President Obama’s fight has never been with Republicans, there’s not enough Republicans to fight, they couldn’t stop anything,” said Graham. “His fight has been with the people.”

Graham believes the tea partiers have been right about the math, the facts, and the politics every step of the way during this health care battle. “And then later on everyone goes, ‘They were right, but they’re still racist kooks, we’re going to ignore them,’” he said.

Speaking of ignoring people, Imus’s name was glaringly omitted from the glossary of That’s No Angry Mob, That’s My Mom, while those of Keith Olbermann, Arianna Huffington, and—gasp!—Dan Rather were included.  

Insisting his book was a “beat down for the loony lefties” that Imus should want no part of, Graham profusely thanked the I-Man for all the work he’s done over the years, both in promoting Graham personally and in taking on important causes like the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.

“Given that we’re probably going to lose you soon, as your son said, I think it’s time now to mention these great things,” Graham joked, then daydreamed about his own future as he sang, “Michael in the Morning!”

-Julie Kanfer