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HAT TIP AND KUDOS TO THE CARPETBAGGER REPORT FOR THIS RATHER WORTHWHILE (AND WORTH READING) ITEM asking which version of John McCain can you trust as credible and accurate when it comes to socioeconomic policy pronouncements in his Indecision 2008 Presidential bid:

The Tax Policy Center prepared an interesting report (pdf) this week, noting the key differences between the economic policies articulated by John McCain and the economic policies presented by John McCain’s presidential campaign. There’s a bit of a gap — to the tune of $2.8 trillion (that’s “trillion,” with a “t”).

According to the study, the tax plan McCain’s campaign laid out privately is different from the one he’s selling on the stump. If you include the policies he has advocated publicly—such as repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax, increasing the dependent exemption to $7,000 right away, and reducing the corporate tax rate to 25 percent immediately—then the deficit after 10 years would actually be $2.8 trillion greater than if you go by his private plan. There’s also a rhetorical gap for Obama, but in his case the public version generates more revenue than the private one, thanks to a suggested hike in payroll taxes for people who make $250,000 or more.

How does the McCain campaign respond to this? As it turns out, hilariously.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain’s chief economic adviser, told Slate, “[McCain] has certainly I’m sure said things in town halls” that don’t jibe perfectly with his written plan. But that doesn’t mean it’s official.”

Got that? If we want to better understand John McCain’s economic policies, we should overlook what John McCain says about his economic policies. McCain’s “official” positions don’t come from McCain.

As Yglesias summarized, “Basically, the McCain campaign’s position is that their candidate should be allowed to produce one set of “official” numbers for the purposes of expert scrutiny. But when going around the country talking to voters, McCain should be allowed to produce a different set of “unofficial” proposals — perhaps made with his fingers crossed behind his back — that are designed to trick voters into believing he means what he says, while really they’re just unofficial proposals he doesn’t mean. Or something.”

Wonk Room dug a little deeper.

Two problems: the numbers Holtz-Eakin gave to the Tax Policy Center in their initial analysis weren’t available to “anyone who asks,” and pointing out the gaping distinctions between what McCain says on the stump and what his advisers say in private, is far from parsing.

For months, the McCain campaign had not offered specific numbers on his profligate budget proposals. In June, Robert Bixby of the Concord Coalition, a prominent advocacy group for balanced budgets, told Bloomberg news: “I haven’t received anything, and if some of the other groups have then I’ll be really ticked off…If he’s got some more complete budget proposal he can send I’d love to get it.”

Detailed figures did finally appear publicly in the first Tax Policy Center report and later in the Washington Post, but are still not available on the campaign’s web site. And no wonder: there are still serious inconsistencies between what his advisers provide to the wonks at the Tax Policy Center (and the editorial board of the Washington Post) and what appears on McCain’s web site and in his stump speeches.

As Douglas Holtz-Eakin himself has said, only “Senator McCain speaks for Senator McCain.” Silly us, we believed him.

Let this be a lesson to all of us — according to the McCain campaign, we shouldn’t take too seriously the things John McCain actually tells us. Good to know.

As well as plenty of worthwhile ammunition for to swift-boat McCain with, and then some.

Especially when you consider where the conservative propaganda masheen is pushing that rather groundless, McCarthyist meme of Barak Obama being some class of a "Communist," "European Socialist" or "Manchurian Candidate" type as is keeping these connexions from public notice when, in fact, McCain is more than likely to be the real Manchurian Candidate in view of his subjection to psychological abuse and cruelty in a North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war facility in the Vietnam War as may wind up afflicting his thought processes to the point where irrational decisions may ensue without warning or provocation.

And let's not forget that incident where he supposedly referred to his wife with a vulgar term for the female naughty bits as is definitely among the infamous Seven Dirty Words unfit for radio or television broadcast.