Does Hillary Even Think Gas Tax Cut Will Work?

On Thursday's Clinton campaign conference call, Phil Singer was unable to name a single expert who agrees that the gas tax holiday is a good idea. Now, the Obama campaign has released statements from one of Hillary's newly declared superdelegates, North Carolina Governor Mike Easley, that show the Governor opposing gas tax holidays.

Then, on today's Obama conference call, Senator Claire McCaskill had this exchange with me:

Tommy Christopher: (In reference to Singer's response on the experts)Do you think there's something to that, that a leader has to do the right thing sometimes, even if the experts disagree? I

Senator McCaskill: It's important, when you're making policy decisions that have broad implications to America's families, it would be pretty important to have somebody who agreed with you, who knew something about economics. I think it would show a lack of judgment, frankly, to move forward with a policy...unless you didn't really mean it, unless you were just doing it for an election ploy...if you didn't have any intention of the policy ever really going into effect, but you were just trying to get votes, then perhaps it wouldn't be as important to not have any experts agree with you.

It was not quite an accusation, but more than an implication that Hillary Clinton is playing wedge politics with the gas tax holiday.

Maybe I'm naive, but th thought hadn't occurred to me. It's an old but effective political tactic, to introduce an impossible-to-fund bill that sounds great, like "Fancy Feast for all Kittens," then try to get your opponent on record as hating kittens.

Senator Clinton is risking a lot of her credibility on the economy with this move, so it's hard to tell where th best answer is for her. If the tax holiday passes, but is a failure, it will be damaging. If it never passes, she still gets to be the hero and avoids the blowback. With options like that, how big an issue is her sincerity, anyway?



The idea of getting people on the record, "with us or against us," lends support to the idea that this is simply wedge politics, and that Senator Clinton cares less about passing the resolution than drumming up votes. However, appearances can be deceiving. If Hillary really believes in this idea, wouldn't she be just as likely to politic aggressively for it?

In the context of a political campaign, it is fair for Senator McCaskill to point out this dynamic, but not particularly productive. Hillary Clinton is a fellow Democrat, and it does her a disservice to assume that she wants anything less than what is best for the American people.