The Obama administration's ill-defined pledge of future fiscal restraint in exchange for raising the debt ceiling is, as Karl Rove says, like Lucy van Pelt, the ever-gullible Charlie Brown, and the football ("Obama Owns the Debt-Ceiling Fiasco," op-ed, July 14).
But don't J. Wellington Wimpy's chronic promises in Popeye cartoons come even closer to the mark: "Cook me up a hamburger. I'll pay you Thursday." Or, "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." Decades of burgers on credit led to the present pickle.
James Connelly
Hingham, Mass.
Note from KBJ: Ah, yes: Popeye the sailor man. I'm old enough to have watched these cartoons. Are you?
