The tragedy is that Hillary Clinton understands perfectly well that this is a stupid policy. (If you actually wanted to save people $40 over the course of the summer, you would just give them $40.) She is embracing it anyway. Her campaign is pushing it as a purely symbolic gesture, attempting to take the side of “real people” against elitist snobs with all of their “education” and “expertise” and Ivy-League degrees.

There are a number of reasons why the gas tax holiday proposal is a bad idea, but to cling to a turd like this and to try to sell it as a “real solution” for “real people” would make its supporters like Clinton and John McCain either woefully stupid (which they’re not) or calculating and insensitive to the poor (that’s where my money is).

Poise. Style. Polish. Class. Selflessness. Sacrifice. Grace. Tactfulness. Decency. Humility.

Hillary Clinton?

Got you, didn’t I. These aren’t the adjectives that immediately come to mind when I think of Hillary Clinton, and chances are they aren’t the first that pop into your head either. These are, however, some of the words that we’d all be using to describe Hillary if she were to read the writing on the wall, and bow out gracefully from her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Imagine the upheaval to the political landscape, the glassy-eyed stares of dumbfounded political wonks, the slack-jawed expression on the faces of her most ardent detractors that would result if Hillary were to postpone her quest for the White House, and unify the Democratic Party behind the clear favorite: Barak Obama.

Now, I’m obviously not the first to suggest that Hillary should bow out. Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter, among others beat me to the punch:

The choice before her is to go down ugly with a serious risk of humiliation at the polls, or to go down classy, with a real chance of redemption.

The redemption Alter speaks of is the redeeming quality of self-sacrifice. Everyone knows Hillary wants this nomination so bad she can taste it, but if she were to put her own desires aside for the good of her party, and the good of the country she obviously loves, then why not opt for a graceful exit and maximize the chances of seating a Democratic president in November? March 4th in Ohio and Texas may be the tipping point – where Hillary Clinton either scrambles back into the race with Obama, or where the odds against her become incalculable.

I know what the Republicans want, and I hope Hillary spikes that volleyball instead.

You got to know when to fold ‘em.