HUNTINGTON, W. Va - Republican John McCain appeared to back down on Tuesday in his dispute with his opponent Barack Obama over tire pressure.
Last week in St. Louis, Obama told an audience that steps such as inflating tires to the correct levels could make a difference when it comes to conserving fuel.
Cue gleeful mockery from McCain. Obama was naive, inexperienced and not talking straight to the American people about energy, he said.
His campaign went further, distributing to reporters tire gauges engraved with the words “Obama’s energy plan.”
Predictably, Obama hit back calling McCain’s mockery “ignorant,” arguing his plans were being misrepresented and saying that experts backed his call over tire pressure. Equally predictably, McCain’s camp hit back.
The surprise came during a telephone town hall meeting McCain held on Tuesday with voters in Pennsylvania.
“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.
But he kept up his broad criticism of Obama on energy: “I … don’t think that that (inflating tires) is a way to become energy independent.”
The United States’ energy challenges will be a central factor in the months leading up to the election. But when it comes to how far to inflate your tires, the air seems to have gone out of the dispute.
Photo credit Reuters/Mike Blake (Gas station near San Diego)
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domestic drilling will not reduce fuel costs unless global crude oil prices go down because oil companies will charge based on the current crude oil prices + refining costs and overheads. do you think american oil companies will be fools to charge you less if the global levels are less ? Mccain doesn’t understand these economics. t.boone pickens swiftboated kerry last time. this time he is planning to swiftboat the whole country.
- Posted by vivekLet’s hope Joe in the morning and his side kick Mika will step up to the plate and say McCain was wrong. Joe needs to go over and Fox News and take Mika with him. Let Rachel take over his show. It will be a better show and more rounded. P.S. Pat Buchanan should also walk with them. McCain’s ads have not substance offer any solutions to the issues that we face in America and abroad. Step up to the plate McCain or can’t you remember that you are batting.
- Posted by kathleen greerA message to John McCain: Stupid is as stupid does.
Go, Barack!!
- Posted by ConnieAccording to the Hubbert Peak Oil thoery, which righly predicted US oil production peaking in the ’70s…we passed worldwide peak oil production of 86bbl in 2004. We are now post-peak, and implications are beginning to bear fruit. Learn more at http://lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/
- Posted by NickBarack Obama was asked by someone in the crowd “What can I, individually, do?”
Obama responded saying that “you can inflate your tires and keep the car tuned up”. In other words, all highly reccomended measures that actually waste tons of barrels of gas.
McCain campaign attacks with “That’s his entire energy plan”.
This is what they do. Dishonest, childish, and the media loves it.
I we had real reporters instead of hacks this wouldn’t even be possible, they’d laugh such nonsense off the air.
- Posted by TimezonedMcBush is a sad excuse for a presidential candidate. This latest flip flop on tire pressure just shows he is obsessed with being negative and does not worry about our real problems. I just checked my tire pressure last week and I noticed I got 2 extra miles a gallon on the last tank of gas I bought because I drive quite a bit. Thank you Senator Obama for people like me this will save me much more money than McBush gas tax holiday gimmick.
- Posted by KQuarkJim H, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1/4th of Americans are driving in cars with underinflated tires. And also note that Obama didn’t just talk of tire pressure, he also talked of regular tune-ups.
BTW, politifact.com has judged the claim that proper tire pressure and tune ups will save more fuel than what would be extracted from increased off-shore drilling to be true, and here are the details to back it up:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/ statements/608/
Jake Tapper, no Obama fan he, is even taking McCain and the Republicans to task for mocking the idea of proper tire pressure, calling the mocking “bizarre”:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/ 2008/08/politifact-find.html
Every NASCAR fan knows that proper tire pressure saves fuel. To mock this was stupid in the extreme (no surprise for McCain’s campaign), which is why McCain has now backed off the mocking.
Ideally, we could do both the tire-pressure/tune-ups and the off-shore drilling, but the former can be done immediately (which would lower gas prices because fuel consumption, and therefore demand, would decrease), while the latter won’t produce more fuel for 10 years (and therefore will not lower gas prices until then).
McCain (or, at least his campaign (he seems to not be in control of that)) is on the wrong side on this issue once people stop to think about it, and his mocking only makes him look like a proud fool.
- Posted by PepeI am a Republican and Barak Obama is amazing in my book.. makes me want to be a Democrat… and I know I am voting for him this time.. I probably will switch parties after the election.. Barak Obama for Now and our future..
- Posted by Tim from Brandon FLIs the McCain camp not helping Obama’s message by handing out tire pressure gauges? I mean, you couldn’t ask for a better response from your political opponent! LOL LOL LOL! Great going McCain! Nobody has told him yet that Carl Rove tactics will not work this time.
- Posted by mike“He said that inflating tires would save the same amount as domestic drilling would produce.”
And that is absolutely true — check the Politifact site at http://politifact.org/truth-o-meter/stat ements/608/
They reported that if everyone inflated their tires, it could save 2.8 billion gallons of gas annually - this is based on agency estimates that about 1/4 of motorists are driving around on under-inflated tires. At best, offshore drilling would produce 1.4 billion gallons annually, only half as much as is saved by the tire inflation.
And count me as one of those people who knows about tire inflation but rarely remembers to check. This is one suggestion that can yield immediate results to consumers.
- Posted by GailFrom Time magazine:
“But who’s really out of touch? The Bush Administration estimates that expanded offshore drilling could increase oil production by 200,000 bbl. per day by 2030. We use about 20 million bbl. per day, so that would meet about 1% of our demand two decades from now. Meanwhile, efficiency experts say that keeping tires inflated can improve gas mileage 3%, and regular maintenance can add another 4%. Many drivers already follow their advice, but if everyone did, we could immediately reduce demand several percentage points. In other words: Obama is right.”
And this is only one tiny piece of his energy policy. It’s not too late to switch sides, my Republican friends!
- Posted by WilliamMcCain is still lying by saying that the air in the tires was Obama’s only energy plan.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, “every pound per square inch of tire underinflation wastes 4 million gallons of gas daily in the U.S.”
Survey information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that 27% of the cars on the road have a significantly under-inflated tire.
For all the people saying that Obama does not have a detailed energy plan:
http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/factsheet _energy_speech_080308.pdf
Obama’s excellent energy and climate plan
http://climateprogress.org/2007/10/09/ob amas-excellent-energy-and-climate-plan/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-rom m/obama-delivers-a-real-ene_b_116751.htm l
McCain calls for 700+ new nuclear plants (and seven Yucca mountains) costing $4 trillion
http://climateprogress.org/2008/05/04/mc cain-calls-for-700-new-nuclear-plants-an d-7-yucca-mountains-costing-4-trillion
- Posted by StanOk, let’s start with what Obama actually said, shall we? He said, to paraphrase: Inflating your tires and getting regular tune-ups will save us more oil than new drilling will gain us. To get the proper context, this was not part of his speech. This was an answer to an audience question on what ordinary people could do try and conserve some energy.
The math is correct. And just to prove a point, I’ll even throw in the statistics of our current offshore production.
Via ABC News Blog (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch /2008/07/from-the-fact-1.html), everyone inflating their tires would save roughly 800,000 barrels per day (BPD), based on an estimate of the number of cars with under-inflated tires and an estimated 3% more fuel economy, both figures directly from the U.S. government.
Obama also said to get regular tune ups, which brings an estimated 4% more fuel economy. Extrapolating from the 3% numbers, that’s 900,000 BPD if everyone gets tune-ups.
So. If everyone inflated their tires and got a tune-up once a month, we’d save 1.7M BPD of oil based on those estimates, which seem pretty fair to me.
From the Jake Tapper piece: “Current crude oil and condensate production in the OCS is about 1.25 million barrels per day.”
From Time (http://www.time.com/time/politics/artic le/0,8599,1829354,00.html?cnn=yes): “The Bush Administration estimates that expanded offshore drilling could increase oil production by 200,000 bbl. per day by 2030″
So let’s run the totals:
1.25M BPD (current offshore production) + .2M BPD (future offshore production) - 1.7M BPD (savings of inflated tires and tune ups) = -250,000 BPD
In fact, if only 85% of those people went and got inflated tires and tune ups, it would even out.
And those are just static numbers, that’s not even accounting for how long it’ll take just to ramp up to the 200,000 BPD of new drilling.
In conclusion, some of you are taking him far too literally anyway. He offered but one example of one of the simple, everyday things Americans can do to reduce our energy consumption which makes it that much easier for comprehensive energy reforms to work.
- Posted by ZelbinianI find your non apology apology so two faced. Why not have the guts to just say you were wrong. this is just another episode that shows your really nasty guy. We already got stuck with that the last 8 years and do not want any further misery. Your snide, hateful, mocking rhetoric is killing your Brand, Mr. McCain. That along with your disgusting treatment of your wife with your offer up of her for that vulgar contest in Sturgis and your C*** word. So tell me, what woman would ever want you in the White House. Obviously you have no idea of etiquette and you would embarrass our nation constantly. We have been there and done that for the last 8 years. No Thanks!!!!!
- Posted by MariI read an explanation about this from a non partisan source today that said keeping tires properly inflated could save me 12 cents a gallon on gas. I haven’t checked my tires in a year or even two. I’m gonna get on that. Maybe we all should. Twelve cents a gallon sounds mighty good right now!
- Posted by karela(edited)
The whole point that so many of you are missing is that McCain has continued to drag this campaign into the ditch by suggesting that Obama’s energy plan consists entirely of encouraging people to check their tires. Are people really so gullible as to believe such nonsense?
Just so there is no misunderstanding (on this forum at least), Obama’s plan is to cut taxes by $1,000 for middle class families to help them deal w/ soaring prices; crack down on speculation in oil markets so that consumers aren’t being ripped off; fast track development of hybrid-electric plug-ins and alternative fuels; and possibly open up national reserves if the problem worsens. Checking your tires to increase efficiency is one tiny part of the solution that he recently suggested, and now the Republicans are trying to make it look like that’s the centerpiece of his energy policy. What a bunch of hooey.
- Posted by WilliamThe oil companies only want the oil land leases on their books to boost stock prices. They have no intention of actually drilling on any of them; for proof, look at all the leases they already are sitting on.
- Posted by ChrisI can’t believe people still donate to mcsame’s campaign. They waste tons of money on trivial crap like the paris & britney ad and now the engraved tire gauges, it’s just ridiculous. Mcbush needs to either talk about the issues and not just Sen. Obama or he should retire, fly away on jetcindy and spend the rest of her money. The man is dangerous.
- Posted by sandyThe whole point that so many of you are missing is that McCain has continued to drag this campaign into the ditch by claiming that Obama’s energy plan consists entirely of encouraging people to check their tires. Are people really that stupid as to believe such nonsense?
Just so there is any misunderstanding on this forum, Obama’s plan is to cut taxes by $1000 for middle class families to help them deal w/ soaring prices, crack down on speculation in oil markets so that consumers aren’t being ripped off, fast track development of hybrid-electric plug-ins and alternative fuels, and possibly open up national reserves if the problem worsens. Checking your tires to increase efficiency is one tiny part of the solution that he recently suggested, and now the Republicans are trying to make it look like that’s the centerpiece of his energy policy. What a bunch of hooey.
- Posted by WilliamIt seems that McCain can’t get anything right, sunni/shia, Iraq Pakistan border, inflating tires… NASCAR, Energy Dept, Crist, Ahnold…. offering up his wife in a topless ms buffalo chips contest… is this really what we want to lead us?
- Posted by anne