McCain was wrong to refer to pharmaceutical companies as villains, and the proposal (which he supports) to allow the re-importation of prescription drugs is highly unlikely to reduce prices as advertised. But I think it’s also a little strange to make opposition to re-importation a test of conservative orthodoxy, as some of McCain’s critics–notably George Will–are doing. Ed Crane and Roger Pilon of the Cato Institute are on McCain’s side of this issue, and you can’t get more free-market than the two of them. (They also cite Pat Toomey in support of the McCain position!)

Incidentally, this is a case study in the point I made the other day: McCain’s stance on drug re-importation may annoy conservatives, but there isn’t a voter in America who is going to vote against him over the issue come November.