Does McCain Speak for McCain

The Tax Policy Center discovered a $2.8 trillion gap between between the various promising John McCain has been making throughout the campaign and what his economic policy advisers have been describing more quietly to expert analysts. Slate reports on McCain's explanation:

“This is parsing words out of campaign appearances to an unreasonable degree,” Holtz-Eakin said. “He has certainly I’m sure said things in town halls” that don’t jibe perfectly with his written plan. But that doesn’t mean it’s official.

Basically, the McCain campaign's position is that their candidate should be allowed to produce one set of "official" numbers for the purposes of expert scrutiny. But when going around the country talking to voters, McCain should be allowed to produce a different set of "unofficial" proposals -- perhaps made with his fingers crossed behind his back -- that are designed to trick voters into believing he means what he says, while really they're just unoffocial proposals he doesn't mean. Or something.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2008/07/does-mccain-speak-for-mccain/49494/