Phil Gramm, Whiners, and the 'Mental Recession'

On Wednesday, the big news in the presidential race was Jesse Jackson and his desire to remove Barack Obama's nuts.

Thursday, the big issue was Phil Gramm, the nation of whiners, and the "mental recession."

From the New York Times:

Senator John McCain has spent the week trying to tell people that he feels their economic pain. So it was more than a little unhelpful when one of his top economic advisers was quoted Thursday as saying that the United States was only in a “mental recession” and that it had become a “nation of whiners.”

The adviser, former Senator Phil Gramm, Republican of Texas, sought to clarify his remarks Thursday by saying he had been referring only to some of the nation’s leaders.

But it was too late to keep from complicating things for Mr. McCain, who has been trying to strike a more empathetic tone after sometimes struggling to maintain a balance between displays of optimism about the nation’s future and demonstrating an understanding of Americans’ economic hardships.

Senator Barack Obama, noting that Mr. McCain had previously said an expansion of offshore oil drilling might have a “psychological” benefit for the country, seized on Mr. Gramm’s remarks, made in an interview with The Washington Times.

“You know, America already has one Dr. Phil,” Mr. Obama said at a campaign stop in Fairfax, Va. “When it comes to the economy, we don’t need another.”

Mr. McCain himself repudiated Mr. Gramm’s comments.

“The person here in Michigan that just lost his job isn’t suffering a mental recession,” he told reporters after a town-hall-style meeting at a factory in this city west of Detroit.

And when he was asked whether Mr. Gramm — McCain campaign co-chairman, UBS Investment Bank vice chairman and former economics professor — might serve as treasury secretary in a McCain administration, the candidate replied with a flash of his sometimes tart humor.

“I think Senator Gramm would be in serious consideration for ambassador to Belarus,” he said, “although I’m not sure the citizens of Minsk would welcome that.”

The Times reports on McCain's "tart humor," but it fails to specify his response to Gramm's comments.

McCain was firm: “I believe the mother here in Michigan and around America who is trying to get enough money to educate their children isn’t whining,” he told reporters. “America is in great difficulty and we are experiencing enormous economic challenges as well as others. Phil Gramm does not speak for me. I speak for me. So, I strongly disagree.”

It's a non-story.

McCain stated his position. He understands that people are hurting. Gramm isn't the Republican candidate for president.

The country's economic difficulties aside, whining does seem to be the national pastime.

And the eloquent Obama's "Dr. Phil" joke was lame. He was giddy as he seized on Gramm's remarks. That was an inappropriate reaction. Obama should have responded in a serious manner rather than delivering a goofy sound bite. Making light of what Gramm said isn't exactly a sincere "I feel your pain" approach.

It did work for Obama from the standpoint that the lib media are playing his quip as if it were the greatest joke ever told.

Is this part of his hope strategy? Laughter is the best medicine? Are all those previously hopeless, miserable people feeling better about their economic futures now?