JOHN MCCAIN:

"I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated [about economics]".  That was McCain speaking with Stephen Moore in Nov. of 2005, at the Senator's office in Washington, D.C. In the same interview McCain identifies former economics professor and U.S. Senator Phil Gramm as his leading economic adviser on economic issues.  Here's the whole incident as recounted by Moore:

On a broader range of economic issues, though, Mr. McCain readily departs from Reaganomics. His philosophy is best described as a work in progress. He is refreshingly blunt when he tell me: "I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated." OK, so who does he turn to for advice? His answer is reassuring. His foremost economic guru is former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm (who would almost certainly be Treasury secretary in a McCain administration). He's also friendly with the godfather of supply-side economics, Arthur Laffer.

The always reliable "Huffington Post" re-writes history, and transforms this incident into a recent meeting with editorial board of The Wall Street Journal, one in which Sen. McCain is made to say he "doesn't really understand economics."   A pure fabrication, and a rather nasty one at that. Here's the opening paragraph from Sam Stein's article "Short on Economic Understanding, McCain Brings Phil Gramm to Meeting" in the Huffington Post:

At a recent meeting with the Wall Street Journal editorial board, Republican presidential candidate John McCain admitted he "doesn't really understand economics" and then pointed to his adviser and former Senate colleague, Phil Gramm - whom he had brought with him to the meeting - as the expert he turns to on the subject, The Huffington Post has learned.

The incident was confirmed by a source familiar with the proceedings of the meeting.

Perhaps no surprise this -- Paul Krugman has picked up the fabrication and he's spreading it via the New York Times.

John McCain did in fact have a recent meeting with the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal -- but note well that Phil Gramm wasn't present, and John McCain didn't tell anyone that he "doesn't really understand economics".