Apparently, we can save more oil by properly inflating tires than we can pump out of ANWR. That silly Barack. What is he thinking?
Additionally, has anyone asked McCain, in between making mocking references about tire gauges, how he voted on the TRANSPORTATION RECALL ENHANCEMENT, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND DOCUMENTATION (TREAD) ACT (.pdf), in which the following is established:
SEC. 13. TIRE PRESSURE WARNING. Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Transportation shall complete a rulemaking for a regulation to require a warning system in new motor vehicles to indicate to the operator when a tire is significantly under inflated. Such requirement shall become effective not later than 2 years after the date of the completion of such rulemaking.
I mean, after all, here he is fighting former Senator Hollings to get the bill passed:
Mr. McCAIN. Let me just say that I will be here on the floor. If the two Senators who object from the other side of the aisle would like to come down, I would be glad to discuss their concerns. I would be glad to commit to holding hearings, along with Senator HOLLINGS, next year to try to perfect this bill.
I know my friend from South Carolina has serious concerns about the safe harbor aspect of this bill. I intend to work with him to tighten it up. I much would have preferred the bill pass through the Senate, let me tell you.
We inaugurated a little phrase called “straight talk” back when I was seeking another office. I will tell you, in straight talk, what this is all about. This is the trial lawyers against the automotive interests. Trial lawyers do not want it because they do not like the provisions. They want to be able to sue anybody for anything under any circumstances. And the automotive industry wants this thing killed, figuring that the publicity surrounding these accidents and these tragedies that are taking place will die out and they will be able to kill off this legislation next year.
Certainly in his grandstanding about trial lawyers and the Firestone tragedies, he had to know about the value of properly inflated tires that was reflected in this bill he worked so hard to pass. If I we pretend this is about charges of racism, will journalists like Jake Tapper pay attention?
*** Update ***
Apologies to Tapper, who actually has paid attention to it. Not that anyone else will.
rts
Nice catch John. Too bad that this tidbit of hypocrisy will be interpreted as good news for . . . McCain.
Ripley
He was a POW, damn it!
The GOP thinks they’re so terribly clever with this kind of thing, but they’re so very, very sad.
cleek
this is where a 527 steps in and makes a scathing “McCain’s a doddering old hypocrite” ad.
except Obama wants to shut out the 527s. idiot.
it’s like leaving votes on the table.
benjamin
Actually, as much as I resent Jake Tapper, he was on top of this story two days ago and published a long entry that calculated that inflating the tires would cover two-thirds of what offshore-drilling would bring in terms of oil – at a tenuous fraction of the cost.
And he published another blog entry this morning reiterating how stupid it is for the GOP to mock Obama on this.
So he is actually on top of things on this one.
calipygian
Actually, its kind of funny because it doesn’t look like Malkin is touching this one.
Maybe because even SHE thinks the whole tire pressure gauge thing is stupid, childish and will hurt the GOP in the long run?
Usually this would be something that she would put on the cheerleading outfit for. And I was so looking forward to seeing her stick a tire pressure gauge up her ass on Hot Air saying that that was as useful as keeping your tires inflated.
El Cid
That was fine to do when it was just about vehicle maintenance and general fuel efficiency.
Now, however, properly inflating your tires = surrender to the Caliphate, so we are obligated by honor & duty to reverse our previous policies and stick it to the mullahs and tell them ‘no, you will not tell us what to do with our g** d*** tires’!!
BarneyG2000
If we need more oil and gas why don’t we just stop exporting so much of the stuff?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7690196
Perry Como
Why are you questioning McCain military service?!
DougJ
Yeah, got to give Tapper credit on this. It goes to show: a lot of reporters are fine as long as they’re sticking to facts. But when they veer off into who’s a flip-flopper and how much they pay for hair-cuts….
Incertus
Actually, I’m starting to think that John McCain really doesn’t know anything. The longer this campaign goes on, the more he seems like he’s actually less informed than Dubya, albeit slightly more articulate in his ignorance.
jake
But John, TREAD (gag) wasn’t about saving gas and money, it was about promoting the culture of life.
Attempting to make McCain’s tire gage fetish look any dumber is a waste of calories.
Dreggas
Don’t inflate, resist the caliphate?
harlana pepper
SICK.OF.THIS
I know of people who are doing everything they can to reduce the cost of driving, such as traveling under a certain number of RPM’s and even driving 55 mph (which has been proven to save 20% in gas). But in republican-land, proven, common sense solutions are labeled ‘idiotic’ just because their opponents, backed by scientific study, have the good sense to suggest them.
And, of course, they can also *always* fall back on the fears of a selfish American public that these measures would require some minor sacrifice on their part. HORRORS!
Something that damned fool Carter asked us to do and it actually worked. Damn him to hell for being right.
chopper
indeed. everyone seems to be missing obama’s point entirely. the right seems so quick to decry the idea of keeping our tires properly inflated as if that won’t do anything at all for our energy crisis. yet they say that drilling in ANWR will, despite the fact that both represent the same amount in per-day oil added into the overall american market.
if inflating our tires properly is so worthless, then so is drilling in ANWR.
Perry Como
For any Obama surrogate, here’s your response to the fucktarded Repubs:
“Of course John McCain doesn’t want the average American to save money on gas. The more the average American spends on gas the more money Big Oil makes, and the more money Big Oil makes, the more they donate to McCain’s campaign.”
If someone said that on a cable news show I’d think we’d see some heads explode.
tl;dr
McCain doesn’t care about gas people.
Ricky
“Actually, my friends, do inflate your tires. Because we only want the leases to ANWR and offshore sites. We have no intention of drilling until we are finished with that cheap Saudi shit.”
Rear Adm. Straight Talk
chopper
seriously, the right has been harping on drilling in ANWR forever, saying it’s gonna help wean us off foreign oil. not that it will, but they say it.
it won’t put out much oil for at least a decade though. meanwhile what obama just suggested will put the same amount of oil into america’s fuel budget *overnight*. no drilling, no prospecting, no nothing, just a quarter in a slot at the gas station.
no wonder the GOP has its panties in a bunch over this.
AnneLaurie
If we need more oil and gas why don’t we just stop exporting so much of the stuff?
In Ireland during the 1840s, at least a million people starved to death and another million were forced to emigrate. At the same time, hundreds of tons of Irish grain were shipped overseas, because the handful of people who owned that grain saw no profit in wasting it on a lot of starving peasants who couldn’t afford to pay market prices.
And there was an equivalent cadre of Media Village Idiots willing to explain (for a very reasonable price) that it was all the fault of those peasants for not appreciating their overlords’ beneficence, too.
chopper
to put it another way; apparently the section of ANWR the GOP wants to open for drilling holds about 7 billion barrels of technically recoverable crude. it wouldn’t peak until about 2030 according to data i saw at the USGS.
meanwhile, saving 800,000 barrels of oil a day by pumping up our tires properly would, by 2032, have saved us 7 billion barrels of real oil. and that’s assuming no increase in the number of gas-burning cars on the road during that time.
so we can drill and ruin ANWR to get 7 billion barrels of oil, or we can just pump up our goddamn tires and do the same. of course, pumping up our tires doesn’t make exxon money so it doesn’t put donations into john mccain’s pocket, so it should be ridiculed.
Shouting at the Rain
From Sen. Obama this morning:
“Without a doubt, this addiction is one of the most dangerous and urgent threats this nation has ever faced – from the gas prices that are wiping out your paychecks and straining businesses to the jobs that are disappearing from this state; from the instability and terror bred in the Middle East to the rising oceans and record drought and spreading famine that could engulf our planet.”
[…]
We simply cannot pretend, as Senator McCain does, that we can drill our way out of this problem. We need a much bolder and much bigger set of solutions. We have to make a serious, nationwide commitment to developing new sources of energy and we have to do it right away.
Silly Democrat. Speaking truth to bullshit will NEVER work.
I wish he’d just roll a flat tire out on the stage at his next stop with the words “McCain’s Energy Policy” ’round the sidewall. That would make me giggle.
nightjar
It’s their White Whale, and their bridge to cross the ideological Rubicon in order to defeat the evil Enviruses. For Alaskans, it might be something of a temporary boon, but for the average wingnut, it’s more of a political battlefield. They know the oil in ANWAR is a pittance to what would keep the cars and factories running into the future. It’s the same mental process of their suppressing an all out effort for finding alternative fuels, and more efficient vehicles and clean coal burning technology and especially Global Warming . They’re reason for existence is about ideology and inflicting it on the rest of us. Be damned with common sense and good ideas and pragmatism. They are stuck in one gear and that is to win, win, win whatever argument there is over liberals. I just hope the rest of America figures this out before it’s too late.
Ed Drone
Actually, someone needs to examine his “record” better — for example, the claim that he refused repatriation when it was offered comes — unsupported — from him alone.
Not to mention his propaganda broadcasts for his captors (not just one or two, as I understand).
Let’s have the truth, GODDAMNIT!
Ed
The Grand Panjandrum
Holy shit, Batman! Bring me some nitroglycerine tablets I think I gonna have some major chest pain any time now. Something too childish and stupid for MM?
heet
On one side I’m disgusted at how this ANWR vs tire pressure bullshit plays on the ignorance of the electorate. On the other I’m completely unsurprised. Is it November yet?
jbarntt
It is correct that proper tire inflation increases gas mileage, hence it is desirable, but it is also stupid to base one’s energy policy on something that is completely outside of one’s control.
Obama made a gaffe, and McCain caught him on it. Life’s rough all over. I’m a McCain supporter and McCain also makes gaffes. Sun rises in the east every week and politicians sometimes say stupid things.
Sometimes bloggers say stupid things also.
Glocksman
Sources, please.
I’m doing a ‘McCain quotes’ piece for my union local’s newsletter and directly quoting him from that would be wonderful.
nightjar
And you just proved that. The wingnut talking point of but it is also stupid to base one’s energy policy on something that is completely outside of one’s control.
is what is stupid. First off, maintaining proper tire pressure is NOT “out of ones control”. And to suggest Obama was “basing his energy policy on it” is almost as dumb and false as MCcain’s ads. Troll harder troll.
horatius
Have the Obama campaign finally figured out how to lose an election? There’s a whole lot of stupid out there and the message discipline is breaking down.
John Cole
WTF are you talking about? Someone asked him a question about what people can do, and he gave some advice. It is neither a gaffe nor, as you blithely assert, the sum total of his energy policy. In fact, if you look at both energy policies, it is McCain who is missing specifics other than waving a tire gauge and calling for more drilling.
Christ on a crutch you wingnuts just believe whatever the fuck you want, without any basis in reality.
ksmiami
Yes, little troll, keep your tire pressure low, I am sure your daddies in the oil companies would love you for it!