John McCain has got an economics problem.

   First, the soon-to-be-anointed Republican presidential nominee said he doesn’t understand it "as well as I should."

   Now with people paying more than $4 a gallon for gas, losing homes because of the foreclosure scandal and losing jobs when employers move overseas, one of his top economics advisors said,

   "We have sort of become a nation of whiners."

   Talk about political gaffes.

   What’s more, the advisor, former Sen. Phil Gramm, who used to teach economics and has been talked about as Treasury secretary in a McCain administration, said the problems were just in peoples’ heads.

   "You've heard of mental depression," Gramm said in an interview published Thursday in the Washington Times. "This is a mental recession."

   McCain quickly distanced himself from his ally’s remarks.

   "Phil Gramm does not speak for me," he said, while campaigning in Michigan Thursday. "I speak for me, so I strongly disagree."

   But even campaigning in a galaxy far, far away would  would not have been far enough away. Democrats quickly pounced.

   "A slap in the face to the people of Michigan," fumed Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, which posted the highest unemployment in the country in May.

   "There is nothing ‘mental’ about the fact we have lost over 3.5 million manufacturing jobs in this country," she said at a press conference with Democratic colleagues. "Every single one of these people are real people with real families. They didn’t make this up. They’re not hallucinating."

   "Incredibly condescending," said Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, headquarters for Northwest Airlines, which just announced more layoffs.

   Reeling from rising costs for health care and college, people aren’t "seeing ghosts," Klobuchar said. "This is real."

   But for all their outrage, Democrats had to be secretly giddy, too.

   "This is exhibit A of which candidate for president is not in touch," said Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, a top political advisor to Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

   Gramm’s remarks are certain to haunt McCain when he travels to tough battlegrounds like Ohio, Michigan and Missouri. Democrats will ensure voters remember them word-for-word.

   One of the most politically competitive regions this fall, the Midwest also had the highest jobless rate in the country this spring.

   Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio read from a letter from a constituent who had just signed up for unemployment benefits "for the first time ever" and feared he would lose his home.

   "I’m just a regular good guy who’s been paying on my house for 16 years," Brown said, quoting him. "Is there no government for a regular, good person who keeps his mouth shut, works every day and takes care of his family?"