Doing their homework

I recently was invited to participate in a DC tax policy forum discussing the Clinton and Obama tax plans. I couldn't go, but I gather that the Clinton people had thought I might be a good person to discuss Obama's tax plan. This in turn is interesting, because many months ago (well before even the Iowa caucuses) I had a blog post that was critical of Obama's then-newly announced proposals. So I suppose the suggestion may in this sense be no coincidence.

As it happens, I haven't posted on any other candidate's tax plans other than ol' Fred Thompson (you know, the actor) along with some snark concerning this now-forgotten guy who used to be a big shot, I think named Rudy Guiliano or Guilianus or something like that (it's hard to remember these days).

I've been thus scattershot about the candidates' tax plans because I find it hard to really take an interest in these things until I have reason to believe that the candidate is actually going to (a) win and (b) propose his or her plan. Plus, I sometimes have an aversion to overly low-hanging fruit, which is what criticizing a candidate's tax plan can amount to given all the political constraints on proposing sensible tax policies. So in a way it was a compliment, albeit less to Obama himself than to his economic advisor Austan Goolsbee, that I considered the plan worth criticizing.

Anyway, someone's campaign must be reading these things given the apparent genesis of the invitation. Good to know I'm not all alone out here.