Ah, the contradictions of politics!

John McCain has been airing a TV ad in which he says, quote, "The economy is in a shambles," unquote.

But, then, yesterday, one of his chief economic advisers, the former Senator Phil Gramm, opined that America is only in a "mental recession", and that this has become "a nation of whiners". It's all in your heads, you see, this crazy notion that the American economy is in trouble. If you weren't so, ah, mentally unstable, you'd see that it's really morning in America (again). If Americans would just stop whining, and get a job, and go to work, why, we'd all be singing "Happy Days Are Here Again". It simply couldn't be otherwise: after all, this America that we see today is largely a product of Phil Gramm's economic policies.

But I am still puzzled. I am puzzled as to why the inestimable Senator Gramm is serving as an economic adviser to someone he evidently thinks is mentally unstable, and a whiner to boot.

Is he now an amateur psychiatrist, in addition to being the failed economist that he is?

[Interesting historical tidbit: Mr. Gramm has a Ph.D. in economics from Texas A&M University; but he had to take his doctorate level class in monetary theory four times before he got a passing grade of 'C' in it. Now, monetary economics at the Ph.D. level is a tough 'thing'...but it can't be that tough---yours truly got an 'A' in it, the first time through. Does make you wonder about Mr. Gramm's competence as an economist. Or at least it should.]

Did you mean to say "mourning for America"?

Gramm's wife, Wendy, also has a PhD in economics, and reportedly earned something like $2 million during the time she worked for Enron's BOD. She had the good sense to insist on hard cash, not stock. Seems like the Gramm's have done quite well financially, so maybe those PhDs paid off? Maybe Texas A&M does good by their econ graduates, if not for the nation.