The audacity of cynicism

By Contributor Archive

Filed Under Race for White House 2008 on Aug 6 

Jason posted the other day that McCain attacking Obama as out of touch for his tire pressure suggestion, suggesting it’s an effective tactic. I agree that in the short term, it will, and has, offered plenty of fodder for galvanizing the idiot punditry. However, since the election is not tomorrow, I think this sort of cynicism will ultimately hurt McCain, who relies too heavily on his “straight talker” image. From TIME:

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.

I’m not sure how well things like this can be packaged into ads, but the fundamental issue here is that this break from McCain’s so-called “integrity” might help him shore up votes with base Republican voters, but tarnishing his maverickosityness will hurt him with the independent votes he’s relied on in the past. That’s the problem with a campaign that simply has no message and a party that’s fundamentally unequipped to handle current exigencies.

Comments

  • Fabs

    My question is why is everyone taking the Bush Administration estimates as the cold, hard numbers of what we’d actually get? Has the B Admin been that right about so many things that we put so much trust into the numbers? It could be off either way so who’s to say one way or the other yet until we have data that’s more substantiated.

  • Eric

    Back to Jonathan’s closing comments…

    It sounds like you’re saying that the recent polling data (tracking favorably for McCain) is a short-term shoring up of the republican base, having little to do with independents.

    Really? I’m not so sure.

  • http://yesletstalkaboutthis.wordpress.com Jon

    Yes Cordeiro, that might be a true statistic, but that doesn’t mean it makes any sense. Increasing tire inflation will increase fuel economy, thus decreasing demand NOW, not in the unknown decades it would take to unearth domestic oil. Setting up drilling infrastructure takes time, and since McCain is calling for lowered prices NOW, this is not an especially useful policy.

    Of course, all of this is irrelevant, because Obama never proposed that tire inflation serve as our national energy policy, just that it’s a small thing people can do to increase fuel efficiency while having no deleterious effect on anything at all. Why Obama should have been attacked for this is absurd.

  • Mark

    Cordeiro may vote in Dade county…

    Read the rest of the post you cite, and note that even the confederacy of (confederate) dunces over at Powerline admit that it would result in 1.3% less oil use. Compare that to the Bush administration’s 1.0% estimate… and Obama’s still got a 30% better plan, with no environmental damage and at no additional cost! Plus, these savings will go right into your pocket instead of running through the gamut of wall street energy trading first. Hooray for reason!

  • Alaina

    Whatever… I donated to McCain’s campaign twice so I could get a couple of tire pressure gauges.

    • Patrick Keegan

      “Whatever”

      Very typical of you Alaina. Make an incredibly pointless statment without any logic or explaination.

      The next typical thing from you is getting challenged and not responding.

      • Patrick Keegan

        In retrospect, that was pretty rude of me.

        Please forgive the comment, I was a little cranky last night.

        • Alaina

          Wow… you were cranky.

  • http://www.sotr.us Cordeiro

    I renew my citation to the Powerline post stating that it would take over 11,000 years for “proper tire inflation” to make up for the oil that could be produced here in America.

    Obama’s argument simply doesn’t hold water. Then again, facts were never his strong suit.

    • Patrick Keegan

      Neither does the Bush admin’s arguements. But then again, their facts are usually just made up.

  • Eric

    “but if everyone did…”

    In straight-talk, that’s pretty dumb. Technically, Obama may be right; BUT he’s obviously wrong, BECAUSE, it ain’t gonna happen! While we’re dreaming, what if every one was nice and got along, and helpful and cried at Hallmark commercials, and loved butterflies and kitties and rainbows…