Why was Hillary Clinton asked to provide expert support for the “gas tax holiday” while John McCain is allowed to keep pushing it without being challenged?
When Barack Obama took on Hillary Clinton over the “gas tax holiday,” the press sided with Obama, asking her if she could produce a single expert who agreed with her and pointing out that she couldn’t. They made it clear that Obama was talking sense and that Clinton was pandering and talking nonsense.
John McCain is still pushing the same nonsense, and attacking Obama for opposing it. But he’s not getting the tough questions.
I figured that, having come out from behind the Wall of Objectivity and acknowledged that a stupid idea was a stupid idea, reporters would feel bound by that position. But I was forgetting about the sacred principle of IOKIYAR.
Silly me.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
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