The XX Factor: Slate women blog about politics, etc...

Down With the Gas-Tax Vacation

Well Emily Y., you sure were right that Obama had to fend off Wright more decisively. Now he has, and it's not clear whether we should thank the good reverend for behaving so badly that he pushed Obama to denunciation or just wish he'd kept his big mouth shut this week. I veer toward the latter. If we look back and this turns out to have killed Obama's candidacy, or wounded him too badly for him to win the general election, it will be one very sad tale. I don't buy the father-son explanation, either. Wright is not Obama's father. He's just a big baby.

Ann, I think you are on to something. This down-with-the-people moment for Hillary is like a cannier and more broadly appealing version of her earlier impersonation of Reese Witherspoon's character in Election. When she lost in the early rounds, she seemed like the brainy girl who always loses out to the cool guy. Now she's the old gal who's been around a few times and knows how to talk hunting in Scranton, Pa. It's amazing to me how such symbolism matters more than all the money the Clintons raked in last year and their general bubble existence. There should be a new word for how elite they are! And yet, no matter. All of this would be pretty unobjectionable, I suppose, if not for this insane gas-tax vacation that Hillary is advocating. It's the ultimate pander: The campaign can't name a single economist who supports it as good policy, according to John Dickerson in Slate today. So this is where proving you are one of the people gets you? Can't she just take her eggs scrambled and drink more beer?