McCain economic adviser Dr. Phil Gramm just handed a big, fat, gift-wapped package to Obama:

“You’ve heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession,” he said, noting that growth has held up at about 1 percent despite all the publicity over losing jobs to India, China, illegal immigration, housing and credit problems and record oil prices. “We may have a recession; we haven’t had one yet.”

“We have sort of become a nation of whiners,” he said. “You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline” despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy, he said.

“We’ve never been more dominant; we’ve never had more natural advantages than we have today,” he said. “We have benefited greatly” from the globalization of the economy in the last 30 years.

Looking at it in context, he has a point. But why would a seasoned politician create a soundbite that can be so easily exploited by his opponents? McCain did some fast damage control, recommending Gramm as the future ambassador to Belarus instead of as the Secretary of the Treasury. While I admire the speed, it continues to trouble conservatives that McCain saves all his toughest attacks for his allies.

Speaking of Gramm, I can never look at him...



...without thinking of this guy: