“Clinton aides admit it (a gas tax holiday) won’t do much for you – but would help her politically.”

An ad for Sen. Barack Obama attacks Sen. Hillary Clinton on her gas tax holiday proposal:

“More ‘low road’ attacks from Hillary Clinton…Now she’s pushing a ‘bogus’ gas tax gimmick…Experts say it’ll just ‘boost oil industry profits’ ….they’ll ‘simply raise prices and pocket… the difference.’ Clinton aides admit it won’t do much for you – but would help her politically. So here’s the choice…Clinton gimmicks that help big oil…or Barack Obama… a real energy plan and a $1,000 middle class tax cut to help families truly pay the bills.”

On the stump, Obama has echoed the same point. “In a moment of candor, her advisors actually admitted that it wouldn’t have much of an effect on gas prices,” Obama said.

Clinton aides said their own boss’ plan won’t work? That’s a pretty big act of political self-sabotage on the part of those Clinton aides — if it’s true.

The Obama campaign pointed to a quote in an April 30, 2008, report by Perry Bacon Jr. of the

Washington Post

. The report appeared on its campaign blog

The Trail

.

The story highlights Clinton’s growing confidence in the days before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries — confidence that proved misplaced as Clinton lost North Carolina and won Indiana by two points. The story describes campaign strategies, the controversy over Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and the gas tax holiday.

Here’s the single sentence about what her aides said about the gas tax:

“Clinton aides think that even if the measure is a limited way to reduce gas prices, it allows the candidate to bash oil companies and cast her opponent against an idea that has political appeal.”

That doesn’t sound like an admission from Clinton aides that the gas tax holiday won’t work. Note the words “even if” — it sounds more like a response to critics who say it won’t work. (And there are many critics who say it won’t work; see our previous story on

gas taxes here

.)

Clinton’s aides seem to be saying that even if the critics are right, the gas tax holiday still has political benefits for Clinton. But it doesn’t say that the aides themselves believe that to be the case.

Granted, this is a close reading of one sentence that hinges on the key words “even if.”

Nevertheless, the Obama campaign ad and Obama himself seem to be puffing up the sentence to say more than it actually says.

Do Clinton aides think that the gas tax won’t work? Certainly it’s possible, but the

Washington Post

story doesn’t answer that question. The sentence is a paraphrase of an anonymous source, which makes it impossible to find out what the aides really think.

Obama says that Clinton aides admit the plan won’t do much good. We find the aides say that it’s a plan that has political benefits, whether it works or not. There’s a gap between those two statements. We rate Obama’s statement Barely True.

Editor’s note: This statement was rated Barely True when it was published. On July 27, 2011, we changed the name for the rating to Mostly False.