The Occasional Observer

with the lagging campaigns and their spinsters getting desperate for traction. But still, this RedHot by Jeff Emanuel smacks of more desperation than usual:

Posted at 4:26am on Dec. 15, 2007

Know. Your. Audience.

By Jeff Emanuel

For example, don't pitch a national 30% sales tax to voters in a state that has no sales (or income) tax.

Here's the full version of the story, which is being picked up in the MSM echo chamber:

Earlier Friday, on another topic in Boscawen, N.H., Huckabee said eliminating federal income taxes in favor of a national sales tax would help save Social Security - an odd pitch in a state where residents pay no state income or sales taxes.

"Instead of basing our national budget off of payroll taxes for Social Security ... it means the base of funding is much broader," said Huckabee, whose shoestring campaign has surged nationally and in Iowa, which holds caucuses five days before New Hampshire's Jan. 8 primary.

The tax plan Huckabee has proposed, called the "FAIR tax," would eliminate federal income and investment taxes and replace them with a 23 percent federal sales tax. Even the backers of the tax admit it is unlikely to get through Congress, and other leading GOP candidates have been critical of the idea.

It's a tough sell in New Hampshire, where residents do not pay state income taxes or general sales taxes. Scott Sweezey, a programmer at the plant where Huckabee spoke, said he doesn't know how to make a consumption tax treat people fairly. [my emphasis]

I must've missed the part where Huckabee was pitching a New Hampshire state sales tax. Or the part where NH taxpayers didn't pay a federal income tax, the revocation of which would make Huckabee's proposal pretty attractive to this fiscally conservative state.

I presume that by this meme's logic, Huckabee would get more traction proposing an increase in the federal income tax, what with New Hampshirites being "used to it" and all. A sales tax, on the other hand, well--that's just weird wacky stuff.