To be fair, the Post story made it clear that the big kids in Washington, from President Barack Obama to congressional leaders, are not inclined to include a national sales tax in their immediate plans. However, the White House budget director has hired a vocal advocate of the value-added tax to help set health-reform policy, and many in Washington are beginning to believe there is little choice but to find some new way to suck more money out of your wallet.

None of which fazes Wright in the least.

Why? Because he believes Americans will see how absurd all of this is, and that will be good for his cause.

"Since Obama's election, we have experienced the largest spontaneous surge in the grass roots we've ever seen for the FairTax," he said. And as for everyone else, "patience will run thin when the economy does not recover."

Not that he wishes Obama would fail, the way a more famous conservative put it. He just wants the FairTax to succeed.

If the road from here to there sounds filled with more obstacles than what Indiana Jones could handle, that's because it is. To make Wright's FairTax world happen, the nation would have to scrap the tax code and repeal the 16th Amendment, which made the income tax legal.

To a lot of people, that would be a depressingly hard task. But after 19 years on the stump, Wright remains, well, indefatigable.

Jay Evensen is editor of the Deseret News edito?rial page. E-mail: even@desnews.com. Visit his blog at deseretnews.com/blogs.