More on "McCainonomics"

McCain delivered a major economic policy speech yesterday, and a lot of people have been paying attention to his calls for a gas tax holiday.

Some commentators expressed high hopes that it might help relieve gas prices. There are skeptics, of course, and Jared Bernstein has some insightful commentary on what might go wrong with McCain's policies.

He calls the gas tax proposal "smart politics but lousy policy," and claims that the 18 cents that once went to the government would end up effectively going straight to the oil companies.

Still, proposing a gas price drop just before summer in an election year will probably look good to some voters, as Bernstein suggests, although McCain isn't the first Republican to try it.