John McWho?

Okay, I believe it's official. John McCain cannot be our next president. He's just another "feel good" Republican who favors symbolic acts over tough acts that could acutally help people out.

McCain proposes a "tax holiday" between Memorial Day and Labor Day this summer, in which Congress would lift the federal taxes on gasoline. Big. Fat. Hairy. Deal.

Right now at home, gas is $3.28 a gallon. A federal gas tax holiday would see prices drop . . . to $3.10 a gallon. Big deal. We spend about $40 a week keeping gas in our minivan. We don't make a lot of long trips -- one sixty-mile round-trip to Idaho Falls a week is about the extent of our long voyages, with a myriad of shorter voyages, of course. At today's gas prices, that's about 12.25 gallons. McCain's tax holiday would save us $2.19 a week or, over the course of his proposed holiday (and I'll be generous and call it four months) a whopping $35. Thanks to the big-thinking, whiskey-drinking, no-eye-blinking John McCain, we can save enough money this summer -- if this tax holiday idea goes through -- to buy an extra tank of gas. Thanks, John. Talk about symbolism without the substance.

He expressed no long-term solutions. The tax holiday ends on Labor Day, the gas tax reappears, and we're back in the same old boat we never left during the holiday because gas prices are still through the roof. I won't even comment on prices outside the United States, where taxes are much higher than what we pay here. I know we're crybabies. But bear with me.

Meanwhile, crude oil is trading at $113 a barrel today, a new record. That tax holiday isn't going to affect the oil companies one bit.

Here are some more radical ideas I'd like to see a president propose, rather than a ridiculous feel-gooder:

• Cap crude oil prices at $50 a barrel. I think we've seen that the increased prices hasn't soured demand. So let's get prices reasonable again. As I recall, oil companies were still profitable when crude was trading at $16 a barrel in the mid-1980s, so $50 a barrel shouldn't be too big of a burden.
• Increase fuel efficiency standards, ignoring the whining from Detroit. Those boobs making cars need to get their harbls out of the oil companies' pockets.
• Cut consumption. This is a radical idea that freedom-loving Americans will detest. But I think it could work: Limit families to one car apiece. One car. We have two. One, I drive to and from the bus stop, seven miles distant. I still have to put gas in it. It still costs insurance money. We could get rid of one car and save money. Maybe this is as symbolic a gesture as McCain's tax holiday. But it would at least be a permanent idea, not one with an expiration date in four months.
• We could also plan/consolidate our trips better. Last Friday we squeezed everything out of our weekly trip to the big city. We don't make multiple trips.
• Fund alternatives. If Big Oil won't agree to price caps, maybe the government out to just take some of their profits and invest it in alternative sources of fuel. Is this stealing? Is this socialism? Communism? Perhaps. But it beats the highway robbery capitalism we have now. I've posted a video here of a guy who's developed a hybrid engine that runs on gasoline and water. Water. He gets 100 miles on four ounces of water. Why aren't investors beating a path to his door? If you don't want government involved, fine. Get Big Oil to fund privately. But that'll cut into their bonuses and golf games, so it's not gonna happen any time soon. Please step in, Big Brother. Besides, we're seeing countries like India and China sucking up more of the world's oil, which, in part, is what's driving prices up, up, up. If America wants to lead in this coming century, it's time to get off the oil addiction and find something else. And by something else, I don't mean corn ethanol. Cellulostic ethanol, perhaps. Nuclear. Hydrogen. Wind and solar power. Whatever it takes to shut off the oil spigot.

These are all easy suggestions for me to make, since I am not an expert. But I'll bet if there were a presidential andiate out there who was looking at long-term solutions instead of short-term symbolic fluff, a lot more people would be exicted about going to the polls. As it is, I may vote for Ralph Nader again, just so whatever bozo gets in the White House next doesn't get in with my help.