He cites, as an example, the challenge of keeping the Long Island economy booming should the current bubble of prosperity burst.
He shared a personal story or two with them, but he also shared mini-tutorials on the evolution of the economy from the dark valley of stagflation in the late 1970's to the current peak of prosperity.
To those who remained in California to experience the current tide of prosperity, the party leadership's view of immigration as more of a threat than an opportunity seemed bizarrely defeatist.
For a decade, whenever Americans have been afflicted with doubt as to the durability of their current state of prosperity, they have asked: "Will it be 1929 all over again?" And even after a quarter of a century, this is still a year with a singular political personality.
In 2002, New Hope Coal began operations at an open pit mine a couple of miles north of here with promises of prosperity, current and former residents said.
Mr. McCain's approach, which includes smaller tax cuts than Mr. Bush's, is framed by the combination of current prosperity and long-term national problems.
Administration officials also took advantage of the opportunity to jab at Mr. Bush and Republicans in Congress over fiscal policy, suggesting that the big tax cuts that Republicans are proposing would undermine one of the foundations of the current prosperity, the large and growing federal budget surplus.
It has been broadcast around the world for years and it gives a resonance beyond the size and lack of prosperity of the current Atlantic City.
The chief adviser of the other is a pessimist, deeply skeptical about the durability of our current prosperity.
First, by any measure, the projected non-Social Security surplus will be huge, providing an opportunity for a real national debate, in an election year no less, about how the fruits of the current prosperity should be invested.
