Well, not all of it but McCain has rained down on the GOP laugh fest over Obama’s recent comments regarding inflation…tire inflation. In case you are late to the game, Obama mentioned inflating your tires as a means of cutting down fuel costs in a speech in St Louis last week. Immediately afterwards, Republicans sent in the clowns.
Mark Salter, a senior aid to McCain, told the press aboard the campaign’s plane that he would be handing out a copy of Obama’s energy plan:
Moments after the Boeing 737 was airborne, Salter swooped past the cabin-dividing curtain and gleefully handed out tire gauges that read “Obama’s Energy Plan.”
Much to the chagrin of the ‘gleeful’ Salter, McCain himself has come out advocating Obama’s suggestion:
Obama said a couple of days ago says we all should inflate our tires. I don’t disagree with that. The American Automobile Association strongly recommends it,” McCain said.
During his endorsement of Obama’s plan, McCain rightly pointed out that Triple A also advocates properly inflating tires as a means for fuel conservation:
Inflate tires according to manufacturer recommendations. Under-inflated tires are a safety hazard and can cut fuel economy by as much as 2 percent per pound of pressure below the recommended level.
Moreover, prominent McCain supporters such as Crist, Schwarzenegger and Lieberman also agree with Obama and even NASCAR thinks it’s a good idea. When you think about it, wouldn’t a party who allegedly prides itself on smaller government and less regulation be a big fan of personal responsibility? Shouldn’t Republicans endorse American citizens doing their part to conserve fuel? Or do Republicans view us as a helpless population, forever needing big government coddling and subsidizing in order to drive our cars?
Of course they want to paint this idea as naive, but in fact it is just the opposite. Sure, many people are fine with the idea of doing more drilling for oil that will be distributed into a world market several years from now. Shouldn’t these same people be fine with pulling a little weight themselves? Furthermore, the majority of experts agree that savings at the pump from this government legislation are a ways off. In fact, energy studies by the Department of Energy project savings in twenty years and the Energy Information Agency states:
Senator McCain’s proposal would have no impact in the near-term since it will be close to a decade before the first oil can be extracted from the currently protected offshore areas. The EIA projects that production will reach 200,000 barrels a day… in close to twenty years. It describes this amount as too small to have any significant effect on oil prices.
So, you can wait around a while to see the effect of more off shore drilling or you can inflate your tires for a 2% savings right now – instant gratification or projected savings over a protracted period of time. Are we also scoffing at ideas such as turning off the lights when you leave the room or unplugging appliances you aren’t using?
This one piece of Obama’s energy policy includes more people pitching in and doing their part and not being wasteful. Is that unAmerican? Apparently not to the patriots who came before us:
Again, the GOP has recently offered us two ads centered around Paris Hilton and now a tire gauge. When McCain is not endorsing Obama’s ideas, his campaign seems bogged down in ongoing silliness.
Is John McCain struggling with taking the problems of the American people seriously or is he struggling with doing the same for his own campaign?
