If the Viagra vs. birth control question gets legs, McCain is going to be hurt by it even more than by Gramm's insensitive comments about the economy.

It is not just the substance of the response, or lack thereof, but the contrast with what we have come to expect from Sen. Obama.

The question to McCain and some background can be heard at this YouTube link.

The stir about Gramm is reported as follows by The Wall Street Journal:

Former Sen. Phil Gramm -- friend, adviser and national co-chairman of John McCain's presidential campaign -- undercut one of the senator's central economic messages with comments minimizing problems in the economy.

Sen. Gramm said many of the U.S. economic problems are psychological. "You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," he told The Washington Times in an interview published Thursday.

"We have sort of become a nation of whiners," he said.

Sen. McCain rejected the comments. "America is in great difficulty and we are experiencing enormous economic challenges as well as others. Phil Gramm does not speak for me. I speak for me. So, I strongly disagree."

In a 6-29-08 post I described former Sen. Gramm as McCain's would-be Treasury secretary and as McCain's economics adviser.

Those descriptions were accurate when written, but as of today Gramm is toast in the McCain camp (even though he authored the McCain campaign's economic platform and he and McCain's frienship goes way, way back).

Howard Fineman article in Newsweek notes:

At a time of $4-a-gallon gasoline (or more), of falling home prices in most American cities, of skyrocketing food costs and steadily rising unemployment rates, dismissing worried American voters as whining, depressed basket cases is, well, insane.