THE REAL ELITIST DREAM TICKET-- CLINTON AND McCAIN

Who could resist? All the absolute worst garbage from each party. Today, TV toady George Stephanopoulos began his interview with Clinton "by asking if she could name a single economist who supports her plan for a gas tax suspension." She couldn't, although plenty of lobbyists do-- the nonpartisan ones who will be just as happy sucking up money from a corrupt McCain administration as fro a nearly as corrupt Clinton administration. Hillary's laughably phony stab at populism-- no, she didn't pull out a bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon and take a swig and belch loudly while she said it-- was petulant and almost Bush-like: “I’m not going to put in my lot with economists... Elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantages the vast majority of Americans.” Who better to tell us about what elite opinion is on the side of (not counting McCain)? Clinton-Bush NAFTA would be the perfect example of what elites push... to the disadvantage of the vast majority of Americans. "This gas tax issue to me is very real because I have been meeting people across Indiana and North Carolina who drive for a living, who commute long distances, who would save money," Yes, $25-30 for the summer, about half a tank of gas. How much does  anew tire cost-- or a pothole-inspired front end realignment?

Senator Barack Obama has derided the gas-tax suspension as a gimmick that would save consumers little and cost thousands of jobs, and Kara Glennon, a member of the audience at a town-hall meeting, seemed to agree. Gas prices are “not academic” for her, she told Mrs. Clinton, because she makes less than $25,000 a year-- and then she accused Mrs. Clinton of pandering. “Call me crazy, but I listen to economists because I think I know what they studied,” she said.

Robert Reich, who was President Clinton's excellent Secretary of Labor, also weighed in on this today. And he got right to the heart of the matter-- why Obama is far better suited to lead this country out of the mess that's been created over the last 2 decades than either Clinton or McCain, each of whom has been an integral part of creating the mess.

I know several of the economists who have been advising Senator Clinton, so I phoned them right after I heard this. I reached two of them. One hadn’t heard her remark and said he couldn’t believe she’d say it. The other had heard it and shrugged it off as “politics as usual.”

That’s the problem: Politics as usual.

The gas tax holiday is small potatoes relative to everything else. But it’s so economically stupid (it would increase demand for gas and cause prices to rise, eliminating any benefit to consumers while costing the Treasury more than $9 billion, and generate more pollution) and silly (even if she won, HRC won’t be president this summer) as to be worrisome. That HRC now says she doesn’t care that what economists think is even more troubling.

In case you’ve missed it, we now have a president who doesn’t care what most economists think. George W. Bush doesn’t even care what scientists think. He rejects all experts who disagree with his politics. This has led to some extraordinarily stupid policies.

I’m not saying HRC is George Bush. And I'm not suggesting economists have all the answers. But when economists tell a president or a presidential candidate that his or her idea is dumb – and when all respectable economists around America agree that it’s a dumb idea – it’s probably wise for the president or presidential candidate to listen. When the president or candidate doesn’t, and proudly defends the policy by saying she's "not going to put my lot in with economists,” we’ve got a problem, folks.

Even though the summer gas tax holiday is pure hokum, it polls well, which is why HRC and John McCain are pushing it. That Barack Obama is not in favor of it despite its positive polling numbers speaks volumes about the kind of president he’ll be – and the kind of president we’d otherwise get from McCain and HRC.

Haven’t we had enough of politicians who reject facts in favor of short-term poll-driven politics?

Precisely. And Obama is getting the word out too: