JMM figures the Clinton campaign has good numbers coming in about the gas tax holiday nonsense.

Here is a conjecture that doesn't rely on the assumption that most voters have an IQ of 74 (which, of course, may be true although unlikely):  it's just another "hook" to throw to the crowd who really doesn't want a black candidate but is uncomfortable with admitting that right out (also known as the "core Clinton voters").

One thing I don't understand: wasn't Robert Gates touted as a Wise Man that would at least keep this sort of garbage under control?

Was he not confirmed post-haste by the Senate, in a fit of Broder-certified bipartisanship, amidst courteous bows to his "qualifications"? Was he not actually part of the Iraq Study Group, whose only memorable recommendation was that shunning diplomacy with Iran and Syria in particular was demented?

This is just plain madness.

And here it is again — my own gloss substituted for the WaPo writer's:

"Candidates know they cannot appease activists [who were right from the beginning of this disaster] if they are going to run winning national campaigns," said Will Marshall, president of the centrist Progressive Policy Institute. "It will intensify the tension inside the Democratic coalition as we head into two critical elections."

That's about right: we weren't willing to waste a trillion dollar and commit a war crime just for the heck of it, so the question naturally arises: are we fit to lead a nation?

It is crazy, and yet this stuff continues to make the rounds. It drives me to distraction more than anything else.