Thoughtful libertarian Bryan Caplan, who has just published an acclaimed book on why voters make such dumb choices, has stepped into the breach to defend Hillary R. Clinton's widely derided proposal for a gas-tax holiday to give U.S. consumers a break. It's a great idea, Caplan says, because 1) It won't help consumers much, but it'll give them the illusion that politicians are doing "something." 2) It'll keep politicians from doing something even dumber. 3) It'll raise oil-company profits even higher, which might give them incentive to go discover more oil.

File in the category of damning with (very) faint praise. Sez Caplan:

With arguments like these, I doubt that I'll be getting any phone calls from Hillary's team. Her proposal is defensible; it's just not defensible using arguments that the American people wants to hear.