From TPM Reader JW …
In response to Kurtz’s citation of GP (and as an avid Obama supporter), I have to lay a good deal of the blame for not making the basic, easily understandable, factually accurate assertion that Hillary’s plan WON’T SAVE ANYONE ANY MONEY squarely at the feet of the Obama campaign and its surrogates. I flipped around several cable news stations yesterday, and heard at least a half dozen different “Obama supporters” lambaste Hillary’s plan on the basis of its disingenuousness (including Clinton’s “double dipping” with the windfall profits tax that will never be signed into law by this Administration), it’s “gimmickry,” its short-term only impact, and its INSUFFICIENT help to the common man (i.e. “only $0.30 a day”). Only AFTER laying out all those (admittedly valid) rationales did I ever hear an Obama surrogate, if they still had time to do so, make the point that a tax reduction would not be passed on to the consumer at the pump. It seems to me like this should have been the FIRST thing the Obama camp hit, from day one, with supportive emphasis on all the rest of the absolutely on-target reasons that this is a shameless, and ineffectual, pander by Clinton. I applaud my candidate for hitting back hard on this ridiculous “idea,” but I wish they would have realized earlier how to hammer on it more effectively. Perhaps then the MSM talking heads would have focused on that, rather than the dearth of credible economists who support the plan.
Late Update: TPM Reader DG responds …
JW is exaggerating. I saw an Obama ad on the TPM Election Central website that made exactly the point JW is hitting on, that the consumer won’t benefit from the tax holiday. Maybe Obama surrogates could play that up more on TV, but the point isn’t being ignored entirely by the campaign.
I think I’m with JW on this one though. Yes, the point is out there somewhere in the back and forth. But most of what I’m hearing from the Obama campaign is some version of it’s not responsible and it’s not even very much money. Both are true. But ‘it won’t save you any money’ is much more straightforward and has the added advantage, according to virtually every economist, of being true.
