John McCain and his chief economic advisor Phil Gramm think that the bad economy is all in our heads:

"You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," Gramm tells the Washington Times, adding that despite all the bad news out there US economic growth continues at a rate of approximately 1 percent. "We may have a recession; we haven't had one yet."

Adds Gramm: "We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline...We've never been more dominant; we've never had more natural advantages than we have today...Misery sells newspapers. Thank God the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day."

This comes on the heels of McCain himself saying of economic distress, "a lot of this is psychological. Because I agree the fundamentals of our economy is still strong.”

I smell a great attack ad coming out of these remarks.

Picture a guy pumping gas, and a narrator's voice saying "John McCain thinks the problems with the economy are all in your head." And the guy answers back, "If that's so, then would John McCain like to pay for my $4 gas?"

Picture a woman buying groceries, and the narrator says "John McCain says a lot of our problems with the economy are psychological." The woman replies, "There's nothing psychological about my grocery bill."

Then picture a family standing outside of a house with a foreclosure sign, and the narrator says "John McCain says the fundamentals of our economy are still strong." And the father replies "Have him tell that to my banker."

Then close with something like "John McCain doesn't understand America's problems, so how can he solve them?"

People who are watching their bank accounts bleed and their property values plummet don't like to be told it's all in their heads.

If the Obama campaign or its allies would run a bunch of ads like that right now, this race would be over.