If a politician promises to give every voter a turkey, his or her opponent typically calls that bet and raises - "I'll see his turkey and throw in a chicken."

A turkey is exactly what Republican presidential candidate John McCain promised voters when he called for a Memorial Day to Labor Day suspension of the federal 18.4 cents-per-gallon federal gasoline tax. Sen. Hillary Clinton saw McCain one better, embracing the moratorium on the gas tax and calling for a law requiring oil companies to pay a windfall profits tax.

Sen. Barack Obama also supports a windfall profits tax, but he placed a different bet - that voters are too smart to think that the temporary elimination of a tax that congressional researchers say would save the average motorist $30 will improve their lot or do anything to better the nation's long-term energy picture.

"Half a tank of gas? That's his big solution," Obama said of McCain's proposal.

Clinton's decision to match McCain pander for pander came on the same day that a message arrived from New Hampshire Democratic Party headquarters. It began, "Sen. John McCain's proposal to suspend the gas tax in an election year would cost New Hampshire $32 million in lost federal highway funds, which are used to modernize, repair and maintain our highways and keep roads and bridges safe for families."

The message went on to excoriate McCain for a "gimmick" that would add $10 billion to the nation's deficit and slow needed highway improvements. Nationally, highway officials claim that losing the summer take from the tax would cost the ailing construction industry 300,000 jobs. Presumably, Clinton didn't get the message.