Still Further Proof That John McCain Is Crazy

Today's proof that John McCain is crazy is that the Wall Street Journal caught him ignoring the facts - twice:

On ABC's "This Week" Sunday, Mr. McCain was asked to draw distinctions between his and the current Administration's economic policy. Given an easy opening, the Senator came back with his usual hodgepodge of new child-tax credits, promises to "veto every single pork barrel bill" and close wasteful government agencies, cut dependence on foreign oil and introduce a gas-tax holiday.

Then host George Stephanopoulos raised Social Security. "You're a longtime supporter of the private accounts, as President Bush called for them." Wishing to further distance himself from President Bush, when he could have drawn an equally useful contrast with Barack Obama, Mr. McCain didn't even own up to his support for private retirement accounts, simply saying, "I am a supporter of sitting down together and putting everything on the table and coming up with an answer."

Mr. Stephanopoulos pressed, "So that means payroll tax increases are on the table, as well?" Here came the words that have caused the McCain campaign well deserved grief: "There is nothing that's off the table. I have my positions, and I'll articulate them. But nothing's off the table."

McCain's Tax Blunder

Before you reply that the WSJ is actually a pretty good newspaper, it's just their editorial board that's insane, take note. This came from the editorial section. That's the section they give away because they know that no one is foolish enough to pay to read it. Those are the guys who caught McCain out this time.

So, what are the two misstatements? The first is the first bit of emphasized text. This is pretty well known.

The second is that not more than a six weeks earlier, McCain's campaign had professed his undying aversion to increasing the payroll tax. The Guardian UK notes:

When Obama announced his plan June 13, McCain's top economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, told reporters that as president McCain would not consider a payroll tax increase ``under any imaginable circumstance.''

John McCain says he won't raise taxes

Two days later, as the Los Angeles Times reports, he repeated the pledge:

Across the country, in Nevada, Republican John McCain engaged in a similar bit of political fence-mending. Appearing at a town hall meeting in Sparks, he flatly ruled out raising taxes if elected president.

"I think the worst thing that could happen to America in these very tough economic times is to raise someone's taxes," McCain said in response to a question. "I won't do it."

Obama meets with key women

From an article dated tomorrow, WebCPA adds:

However, McCain's camp has now backed away again from the notion of putting payroll taxes on the table. McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds told Fox News, "There is no imaginable circumstance where he could raise taxes."

To Hike or Not Hike Payroll Taxes

So he was against raising payroll taxes before and after he was for raising them.

If he'd just said something like "I've reconsidered, it's not possible to fund Social Security without increased revenues", then I'd be saying good for McCain. I'm not sure if that's true, but it sounds like an honest change of opinion or a clarification. Instead, now that he's reiterated his old position, he's merely looking like someone who can't grasp what the subject is really about.

When you're a Republican and the WSJ editorial section disses you, you're not doing very well.