In Brief: John McCain Hates/Hearts Economists:
Okay, follow this. It's got a fun little pay off:

So John McCain proposes a gas tax holiday and economists almost universally say it's a stupid idea. In June, McCain, being a reasonable man, chooses to mock the economists: "If you want to call it a gimmick, fine. You know the economists? They’re the same ones that didn’t predict this housing crisis we’re now in." Ha-ha. Stupid economists. What do they know?

Now McCain has put forth a great and mighty economic plan. Did it yesterday, less than a month after dissing the poindexters. And his campaign has released a letter from, well, who else? Economists who support it. Oodles of them. Guess they know a lot about economics, eh?

Here's the final step: the Rude Pundit chose one of the names at relatively random. University of Chicago's Gary Becker, who does a blog on, you know, economics, with Richard Posner. And here's that promised pay off: back in December 2007, Becker says, "The vast majority of economists, including me, were surprised by the extent of the subprime mortgage crisis."

So, to conclude: for John McCain, economists who didn't predict the mortgage crisis don't know what they're talking about when it comes to a gas tax holiday, but when it comes to his entire economic plan, they're a-ok. What fun.

Does that qualify as straight talk?