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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Everyone keeps doing these calculations but according to the experts, if you properly inflate your tires you will save about .4mpg or 3 or 4%. How can you compare that to a barrel of crude oil we would drill for off the coasts. You would first have to calculate the amount of gallons of gasoline you are able to refine from a barrel of oil. I am sure that you get more than 1 gallon of gasoline from a barrel of oil. In addition you get other items from this oil: you get oil products from this barrel, diesel fuel, heating fuel, airplane fuel, etc. So comparing the 3 or 4% savings by inflating your tires is an inaccurate comparison. You gain much more by drilling that by just inflating your tires.
- Posted by KellyThe posters above are angry that McCain pointed out the mistake Obama made, and the lie he told. But, the posters STILL have not answered the basic question:
Of course McCain is like all of us, he understands that maintaining proper tire pressure is a good thing that provides minimal benefits. But even if Obama’s lie WERE correct, if we actually COULD save enough by changing tire pressure to offset drilling offshore, wouldn’t it be even better to do both? Because just think of how many gallons of gasoline we could have, how it would drive down the price of gasoline and a barrel of oil. Why not combine both: the drilling of new oil here in the United States, the continental shelf; plus the proper inflation of tires, to double the effect of the oil that we are drilling? Obama is for the weak “tire pressure” strategy while McCain is attacking the problem head on to lower our price at the pump, while agreeing that conservation and new sources are also important.
Besides, you cannot grow an economy like America’s with just conservation.
- Posted by Tom PaineAs I recall a young lady was nominated for CNN Heroe for distributing tire gauges to help people cut down on fuel consumption. Obviously CNN did not SHE was that stupid.
- Posted by Tori Garza[...] tire pressure of their vehicles produced ridicule from John McCain, that is until he was forced to admit Obama’s proposal made sense, “Obama said a couple of days ago says we all should [...]
- Posted by The Reality Behind Republican Talking Points | Progressive World ReviewI’m trying to turn the tables on the McCain folks and their stupid tire gauge stunt. I’m having gauges made and selling them on eBay in hopes of raising $2300 for Obama (the max contribution). If you are down, can you please forward this on to other like minded folks. Thanks!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayIS API.dll?ViewItem&item=110277515563
- Posted by gateAre the tire guages American made or are they those cheap inacurate Chinese ones?
- Posted by rick fry[...] Anybody who’s been following the US election news recently will have heard about McCain’s mocking of an answer Obama gave to a question in one of his campaign stops about saving fuel. Then he half-retracted it. [...]
- Posted by Vertography » Blog Archive » The Tire Pressure Debate[...] disagree with that. The American Automobile Association strongly recommends it,
- Posted by Obama: Inflate Tires - Page 13 - Political Fever - The Political Debate ForumsMcCain is an arrogant ass- much like his republican predacessor. I heard about his tippey toed rocking, mocking Obama at the Sturgis Ralley- I wonder if they’d asked all the motor-cycle ralliers how much they had to spend this year on their trip cross country ( compared to other trips they’ve made? You can thank the Rupublican Party once more for that. And with the election coming up soon , it reminds of a song I heard last night, the old ‘Who’ song-Meet the new boss-Same as the old boss… I hope we all”Don’t Get Fooled Again!”
- Posted by Michelle78416[...] relentlessly mocking Obama about his idea to inflate tire gauges to save some gasoline, McCain just admitted that he supports it as well! His childish approach to this election is getting very old, very fast, and the press is beginning [...]
- Posted by McCain: The Real Celebrity | Blogging on Meds[...] Reuters: 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. [...]
- Posted by McCain deflates his own “tire-gauge” attack : inkspark.com[...] Reuters: 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. [...]
- Posted by McCain deflates his own “tire-gauge” attack « baracksteadyThose of you adults to whom it is news that one should check their tire pressure and properly inflate their tires are clueless, helpless, ignorant people. Oh wait, I guess that means that Obama hit his demographic. That is McCain’s point. It’s a joke that Obama would bring this point up. He sounds like a teenager activist. Furthermore, we all know that in reality Obama would never step off his pedestal and stoop so low to ever check his own tires anyhow.
- Posted by Hey[...] Thankfully we now know Obama is Irish, that seals the Catholic vote. McCain flip flops on tire pressure and Obama has some [...]
- Posted by patmoroney.com » Just the links in my headHis campaign’s unbelievably ignorant and belligerent response exposed something deeper about the Republican party and the tactics Rove has left behind. They are the party of belligerent ignorance.
belligerentignorance.com
- Posted by Belligerent Ignorance[...] McCain wants to make it clear: he totally thinks we should all drive around on inflated tires! Because grinding down your rims on the pavement … that’s not change we can believe [...]
- Posted by Either Relevant or True » Release, [tire] rotation … splashThe last leftist poster tried to say Americans don’t use the “C” word, Conservation, when I just got finished posting that McCain agrees we have to conserve, but you can’t grow an economy with just conservation. The leftist just doesn’t understand that yes, we all conserve but we also have to increase the supply. There are TWO factors, supply and demand. We can increase supply, by drilling for more American oil with American workers, and we can conserve to reduce demand. But the demand for oil is growing quickly in China and India for more oil, and that is driving the price up. But still, the radical environmentalist leftists would rather see us pay high gas prices than to just let us drill in an environmentally safe way, and incresae the supply, thus lowering the price. As you can tell by the condescending attitude of the last poster, they are the elites and think they are smarter than the rest of us, and know how to spend our money better than we do ourselves.
Sorry, we are not buying. We are voting in McCain, not the elitist radical environmentalist leftist, Obama.
- Posted by Tom PaineUnfortunately, the McCain camp wants everyone to believe that some government policy (namely, allowing off shore- drilling and tax concessions to big oil companies) will bring down the cost of gas at the pump without voters, as individuals, having to do anything or make some at least little sacrifices. Typical of the right, supply is the only answer they see on their radar. They never say the dreaded “C” word: conservation. Properly inflated tires–or using public transportation, more careful planning of trips, etc. (i.e., driving less), may not be an entire answer, but it is something virtually everyone can do at basically no cost. But off-shore drilling and tax concessions to big oil are not the entire answer either–not nearly as much as the Republicans claim–and will ultimatly cost a whole lot more. In the long run we have face the fact that the way we live will, to some degree have to change, if we really want to control the effect of energy on our lives.
- Posted by Matthew JordanObama lied about how much tire pressure will help us
The drive-by reporter of this story must be in the tank for Obama, because no where in the story does he reveal the truth of what Obama actually said. Instead, he tries to cover for Obama. What Obama actually said was that we could save as much by inflating tires and getting tuneups as we would gain by drilling for American oil offshore.
That statement is false. No one would argue with the fact that tire pressure, avoiding jackrabbit starts and so on saves gas. Obama has a firm grasp of the obvious here. Obama’s problem is that he lied about the extent that tire pressure could help save gas, and he lied that we would save enough as we would gain by drilling offshore.
So Obama lied when he said simply inflating tires and getting regular tuneups would save just as much oil as the offshore drilling McCain is proposing. The Obama campaign could not provide figures to back up his claim that inflating tires and getting tuneups would save just as much oil as could be produced by offshore drilling. The reason Obama had to lie to avoid supporting drilling is that he is beholden to the radical environmentalist leftists who want America to fail.
John McCain wants to lift the ban on drilling and that would help Americans by reducing high gas prices. Obama wants to keep the ban in place and keep us buying oil from over seas, which will keep the price high. Obama doesn’t care about the little guy and his gas bills.
Also, Obama assumes we as Americans are too stupid to know that we should keep our tires properly inflated. Even if 90% of Americans were riding around with half-flat or overinflated tires, we STILL could not save much oil just by fixing that. And the reality is most people inflate their tires correctly, so any impact from a few more doing things right is MINIMAL!
I like John McCains “all of the above” approach. Of course McCain is like all of us, he understands that maintaining proper tire pressure is a good thing that provides minimal benefits. But even if Obama’s lie WERE correct, if we actually COULD save enough by changing tire pressure to offset drilling offshore, wouldn’t it be even better to do both? Because just think of how many gallons of gasoline we could have, how it would drive down the price of gasoline and a barrel of oil. Why not combine both: the drilling of new oil here in the United States, the continental shelf; plus the proper inflation of tires, to double the effect of the oil that we are drilling? Obama is for the weak “tire pressure” strategy while McCain is attacking the problem head on to lower our price at the pump, while agreeing that conservation and new sources are also important.
Besides, you cannot grow an economy like America’s with just conservation.
- Posted by Tom Paine[...] 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 [...]
- Posted by McCain Endorses Obama’s Energy Policy « naked candidate