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).