Larry Kudlow of National Review seems to think that John McCain has dropped his support for cap-and-trade, after reading the Republican candidate’s policy pamphlet [PDF] on “Jobs for America,” released this week. Kudlow notes that the document includes no mention of cap-and-trade, though there is a portion titled “Cheap, Clean, Secure Energy for America: The Lexington Project.” He writes:
So I picked up the phone and dialed a senior McCain official to make sure these old eyes hadn’t missed it. Sure enough, on deep background, this senior McCain advisor told me I was correct: no cap-and-trade. In other words, this central-planning, regulatory, tax-and-spend disaster, which did not appear in Mac’s two recent speeches, has been eradicated entirely — even from the detailed policy document that hardly anybody will ever read.
Marc Ambinder called up Jill Hazelbaker, McCain’s communications director, to inquire. She said that the idea that McCain is abandoning his support for cap-and-trade “totally false.”
Kudlow is not exactly one of the conservative movement’s more sober, trusted voices. Perhaps this is just wishful thinking on his part?
