There Will Be $2 Gas.  That about sums up John McCain’s economic plan.  After admitting more than once that he’s not very knowledgeable about the economy, McCain has offered some unrealistic proposals.  It looks like he’s counting on things just somehow getting better.  We’re supposed to believe that we’ll suddenly have $2 gas again, that home foreclosures will magically disappear, and there will be more jobs — if we just vote for McCain.

If that sounds too good to be true, it is.  Let’s look at some specifics of McCain’s economic plan, and see if he really is as oil obsessed as he looks.

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Change.  That’s what America wants after eight years of George W. Bush, and after almost 40 non-stop years of Republican domination.

Let’s make this historic campaign one that’s about ideas.  Rather than go on and on about polls, lapel pins, and cones of silence, let’s instead look at the proposals each candidate is running on.  From now until November, it’s all about the issues.

Each week, your Important Blog will take up one of the issues in the campaign and compare the positions of the candidates.  This week, it’s the economy and taxes.

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It’s August in one of the most exciting and unique presidential elections that anyone remembers.  There’s a lot to talk about in this election.  We’re facing the most serious energy crisis since the 1970’s.  Our troops are in harm’s way, fighting in two terrible wars.  Nearly fifty million Americans have no access to health care.  Poverty and homelessness is on the rise.  The economy is in a recession.  American infrastructure is crumbling, with bridges collapsing and levees breaking.  Schools in rural areas and in cities across the country are in sad shape.  One out of every 100 American adults is in prison (including a shocking one out of every nine young African American men).

As the general election campaign prepares to enter full swing, it’s time for the national conversation to shift to ideas on how to address these issues.  We need to focus on the proposals of the two candidates who will be on every ballot.  Any objective analysis will show that John McCain is on the wrong side of just about every one of these issues.  Barack Obama is right on Iraq, right on the economy, right on education.  All any voter needs is a good explanation of these issues, and the better choice will be pretty clear for most voters.

But rather than spend time on these issues, our national media has been working hard to find something that they think will keep more eyes on the screen.  Any ridiculous story will do: Obama is in Hawaii!  McCain pissed off Paris Hilton!  Hillary Clinton wants her name read out at the convention!  John Edwards had an affair!

That last one — the Edwards sexual infidelity — took up more than 48 hours of news programming on the major cable networks.  Of course, this is newsworthy — a former candidate for president was lying for months (about sex).  But there was no reason for this story to take higher billing than the issues relevant in this presidential election.  Those of us who were Edwards supporters are obviously disappointed.  I’m personally stunned and saddened that Edwards could be so stupid to think he would somehow get away with this awful, inexcusable mistake.  That he apparently continues to try to obfuscate is particularly galling.

But John Edwards’s role in drawing attention to the holes in the economy — even before the most recent bubble collapsed — his emphasis on addressing poverty, and his relentless drive to bring voices from the margins into the center of the national debate remains intact.  He personally will probably have trouble holding public office now (not because he had an affair, but because he insisted on lying and orchestrating a careful coverup).

Now that this sad chapter in the 2008 campaign is over, let’s turn our attention to the two candidates and their ideas.  The first (early absentee) ballots in the general election will be cast just over a month from today.

The tank crew that killed this Reuters camraman earlier this year has been acquitted of any wrongdoing. In other words, any journalist covering the Israeli army’s actions should be prepared to die.

In other news, as Ehud Olmert’s administration collapses, he’s desperately looking for some kind of legacy other than massive corruption, broken promises, and a catastrophe of a war. (Sound like anyone else you know?)

This week, news media suddenly began discussing a new “bold” peace offer from Olmert. The plan would have the Israelis keep “only” about 10% of the West Bank in exchange for some desert real estate in the Negev. The Palestinians say this proposal is a non-starter.

Here’s a great explanation why this Israeli “peace” deal — like most of the other “peace” deals — really is a call for a total capitulation from the Palestinians.

The only way forward in Israel is for the majority of Israelis who want true peace — with a viable home for the Palestinians alongside a strong home for the Israelis — to take power away from the minority of militant settlers who control Israeli politics to an alarming degree. It’s not too late to end the occupation.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and his pals in the Yacht Party are coming close to achieving one of the most cherished parts of the Grover Norquist anti-education, anti-Social Security, anti-health care platform: a spending cap.

The spending cap — which would put an absolute limit on the number of dollars the State of California can spend — is designed for one purpose only: to end all government spending. No more public schools; no more mass transit; no more health care. Wage cuts for workers, fee hikes for students — you name it, that’s the ultimate goal of the spending cap. Rather than provide the best transportation, education, and health care in the world, here in the wealthiest of the 50 states — let’s instead dismantle everything.

Only a tiny minority of wealthy Californians support the crazy idea of a spending cap. This couldn’t be done unless Democrats in Sacramento cave in, especially since a spending cap was resoundingly defeated by the voters in 2005. Now’s the time to call your state assembly member and insist that they refuse any compromise on the budget that includes a spending cap.

Robert at Calitics has more on the disasters caused by spending caps put in place over in Colorado and in other states where radical right wing conservatives have pushed them through. This is a sad day for California.