"We Bailed OURSELVES Out??"

"We" Minus the "Us"; or,
More Pronoun Confusion

The bailout and stimulus that we have administered to ourselves have left us without much cushion. There may be room, and even necessity, for a little more stimulus. But we have to get this moment right."

--Thomas Friedman, "Got to Get This Right"; The New York Times (11/27/2010)

I suppose if you're in London or Berlin or Beijing or wherever Thomas Friedman writes most of his dispatches, it looks like the United States bailed itself out.

However, here in Friedman's hometown of Minneapolis (actually, next-door St. Louis Park), the "we" he refers to looks decidedly more like a "them."

"Them," of course, being the same Wall Street actors whose reckless bets and insane leverage caused the mess in the first place.

It's hard to see how "we can get this moment right" if "we" can't even get our pronouns right.