Sam Stein: "Expert Support For Gas Tax Holiday Appears Nonexistent". By getting on board the holiday bandwagon, John McCain mostly reenforces one's impression of him as someone who doesn't have real ideas, principles, interest in, etc. domestic policy issues. I think that, by contrast, Hillary Clinton is managing to undermine the perception -- something she'd embedded in even a lot of people who aren't hugely sympathetic to her campaign -- that she's the candidate of substance, the earnest policy wonk type who really knows how to fix America's problems.
It's a reminder that Bill Clinton, who certainly stands out among presidents for his wonkishness and interest in policy detail, also wound up gravitating toward a political strategy that leaned heavily on what you might call "policy gimmicks" rather than a serious effort to grapple with national problems.


Pres. Clinton in 2000:
Q. Mr. President, in light of the fact that OPEC has decided to increase production, do you see it as a mistake for the Senate to proceed with a bill that would suspend the gas tax? And if it reached your desk, would you veto it?
A. Well, I don't expect it to reach my desk because there seems to be bipartisan opposition to it in the House, including among the leadership. But the problem I have with it, apart from what it might do to the Highway Trust Fund and the spending obligations that have already been incurred by the acts of Congress, the budgets, is that I'm not sure that the savings would be passed along to the consumers in addition to that.
Posted by David | April 30, 2008 5:36 PM