by Blue Stockings | It's much more like they think the public is really ignorant---or rather the part constituting their base.
Obama was talking about the tire gauge kerfuffle, but he could be describing the entire far right wing of the GOP. As skippy puts it,
"they not only take pride in being ignorant, they take pride in preaching ignorance."
As usual they're picking on one miniscule point and basing a whole attack on it. They know their base better than I do, of course. Maybe that sort of thing works with Republicans. It worked with Michelle Malkin. These are people who don't have any tools but blunt ones to work with. Or rather, they don't need any tools but blunt ones to work with. You don't have to be subtle when you're dispensing ignorance.
From The Stump:
[D]eriding the GOP for embracing ignorance was a nice way to invert McCain's charge. I'd guess this resonates more than usual after eight years of George W. Bush. And Obama delivered the riff in the right tone--not angry or righteous but bemused: "This is the kind of thing they do, I don't understand it..."
It's a great punchline--it really flays the GOP for a.) being out of touch about what matters to voters, and b.) the party's less than high-minded campaign tactics. But it does all this with the same light hand. If Obama adopts this as a standard refrain, that ad could end up backfiring on McCain.
I think it'll backfire just because most people, even right-wingers, want to find a way to save money on gas. If inflating tires works, which it does, they'll notice it all right.
Of course many of the people who give them their talking points, like Malkin, are too rich to care. That's the Republican party: the very rich successfully persuading the struggling-to-get-by to vote for tax cuts that benefit the party's chattering primates and their corporate masters.
I mean, these are people who are so out of touch with reality that they can keep a straight face when Republicans such as McCain jabber about energy policy and piss over Obama's.
But I predict some of the base---desperate to try anything that might save a few bucks at the pump RIGHT NOW--- will be thinking to themselves that this Obama might be smarter than Malkin and the Fox News blowhards would have them believe.
Think Progress says:
In a post on the Wonk Room, Charles Territo, the director of communications for the Auto Alliance (which represents Chrysler, Ford, and GM, among others), notes some facts McCain should keep in mind:
• The Department of Energy estimates that 1.2 billion gallons of fuel were wasted in 2005 as a result of driving on under-inflated tires.
• Fuel efficiency is reduced by 1% for every 3 PSI that tires are under-inflated.
• Proper tire inflation can save the equivalent of about 1 tank of gas per year.
• Proper tire inflation also reduces CO2 emissions.
• Experts estimate that 25% of automobiles are running on tires with lower than recommended pressure, because people don’t know how to check their tires or don’t realize that tires naturally lose air over time.
The Department of Energy estimates that keeping tires properly inflated can help improve gas mileage by about 3.3 percent. It's one step the agency recommends to reduce fuel costs, along with removing items from the trunk, replacing clogged air filters and getting regular tuneups.
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.... But McCain is wrong when he says inflating tires is the only thing Obama is proposing to address America's energy challenges.
Besides the recommendation to keep tires properly inflated, Obama also suggested providing incentives for people to trade in gas guzzling vehicles for more fuel-efficient cars; investing in research and development to produce new fuel-saving technologies like long-running batteries; encouraging innovation in alternative energies; and retrofitting buildings to make them more energy efficient
Damozel addresses Obama's energy plan here.
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Love your blog title :)
Posted by: nunya | August 06, 2008 at 12:44 PM