I'm not asking about lawn signs, which are easy to remove.  I'm asking about bumper stickers, which once applied are so difficult to remove that they are often seen months or even years later.

Tomorrow will be just four weeks since the election.  I see lots of Obama but no McCain bumper stickers.  It's certainly possible that bumper sticker technology has improved and the glue has changed.  But is something else going on here?  Is the election still going on in some sense?

(Related question: How long before we start seeing "Don't blame me, I voted Republican" bumper stickers?)

My "Fiscal Fitness" column from this week's Roll Call is about John McCain's promise to balance the budget by 2013.

Comments much appreciated.

The word "plan" is in quotes in the title above because what John McCain announced yesterday isn't really a plan that holds together to accomplish something; it's a laundry list the candidate will pull from whenever he needs a talking point. 

Want deficit reduction?  I've got it.  Just look at my plan.

Want an energy policy? Look at my plan.

Want taxes cut?  I've got it, check out my plan.

Among many others, Brad DeLong and Economistmom have more details and an analysis worth reading.  But the easiest way to determine what this was all about is to look at what the candidate actually said yesterday as opposed to teh 14-page written document. According to a reporter from a national publications who called me, McCain never mentioned the worrd "deficit"and didn't talk about deficit reduction.  As a result, this paper decided not to publish a story on it.  In the reporter's terms, his editors "took a pass."