Just two weeks after John McCain's latest declaration that the American economic slowdown is "psychological," his top adviser Phil Gramm also insisted the recession is all in our heads. The American people are not merely experiencing a "mental recession," Gramm announced, but are "a nation of whiners" for complaining about it.
In an interview Wednesday with the Washington Times, the UBS vice chairman followed McCain's lead in decrying Americans' imaginary financial woes:

"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.

Of course, while the flat-lining U.S. GDP numbers suggest the nation is not yet technically in a recession, the 400,000 jobs shed over the past six months and the record home foreclosure rate are not figments of Americans' imaginations.
That Gramm, a purveyor of a financial instrument affectionately known as "death bonds" and seen in many quarters as an architect of the mortgage market meltdown, would be so cavalier is unsurprising. John McCain, on the other hand, despite his 8 homes and wife's $100 million fortune is running for president and has to manufacture at least the facade of compassion.
And yet McCain, too, similarly has claimed the downturn is mental.
But back in April, Sigmund McCain told Fox News host Neil Cavuto that his gas tax holiday placebo was just what the doctor ordered for Americans' fragile psyches, if not their pocketbooks:

"I'm very concerned about it, Neil. And obviously the way it's been going up is just terrible. But I think psychologically - and a lot of our problems today, as you know, are psychological - the confidence, trust, the uncertainty about our economic future, ability to keep our own home. This might give them a little psychological boost. Let's have some straight talk, it's not a huge amount of money."

At a town hall meeting in Fresno two weeks ago, McCain touted his born-again support for off-shore drilling as Prozac for the economy. Acknowledging the inescapable conclusion that expanded oil exploration off Florida and California would have no impact on gas prices for years, McCain insisted it was nonetheless the right tonic for Americans' economic woes:

"I don't see an immediate relief, but I do see that exploitation of existing reserves that may exist -- and in view of many experts that do exist off our coasts -- is also a way that we need to provide relief. Even though it may take some years, the fact that we are exploiting those reserves would have psychological impact that I think is beneficial."

By now, McCain should have learned his lesson about telling Americans that their financial troubles are just in their minds. Back in April, McCain recanted his April 17 claim that the Bush years had produced "great progress economically." By the next day, he grudgingly admitted "Americans are not better off than they were eight years ago." And while McCain stumbled again Tuesday by telling MSNBC's Joe Scarborough "I imagine we are" in a recession, by later in the day he got his story straight for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review:

Trib: Are we in a recession now in your opinion?
McCain: Of course, I believe that we're in a recession, but the important thing, you know, people sit around the kitchen table at night saying how are we going to make the mortgage payment? They're not saying, hey, you think we're in a recession? Or just, this is an economic dip, you know, what do you think we're - they're saying how are we going to make our payment this month? How are we going to stay in our home? So and so just lost his job. So that really is -- and I don't mean to be disrespectful of your question, I apologize if I was. But I think, yeah, I'd say we're, certainly in the minds of millions and millions of Americans, we are in a quote recession.

Gramm and McCain's distaste for using the word "recession" is understandable, given the Republican Party's prospects in this election year. (And to be sure, the only "R-word" more painful for the GOP to utter right now is "Republican.") So, better to deny the reality of voters' economic hardship and brush it off as all mental.
Yogi Berra, too, once famously said, "Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical." But as beloved as he is by the American people, that doesn't mean they want him in the White House.
UPDATE: In a statement this morning, Phil Gramm stood by his "mental recession" remarks. Now blaming America's political leaders and not its citizens for "whining," Gramm insisted, "I'm not going to retract any of it. Every word I said was true." He might want to check in with yesterday's version of John McCain.