Yet Another Reason to Shut the Republican Party Down Today...

John McCain's energy policy--the flip-flop on offshore drilling, et cetera...

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Barack Obama joins with Arnold Schwarzenegger in telling Americans that if they want to save money on gas now they should raise the pressure on their tires. John McCain and his campaign... make fun of the idea:

Senator Obama's solution to high gas prices is telling Americans to make sure their tires are inflated. Today, I'm asking for your help in putting Senator Obama's "tire gauge" energy policy to the test. With an immediate donation of $25 or more, we will send you an "Obama Energy Plan" tire pressure gauge. Will simply inflating your tires reduce the financial burden of high gas prices on your wallet?... Please help us put Senator Obama's energy plan to the test - donate $25 or more for your very own "Obama Energy Plan" tire pressure gauge...

The only way to understand it is that John McCain is so rich neither he nor anybody else thinks that Americans might actually want to save money by spending less on gasoline. Keeping your tires inflated is worth about $100 a year to the average American family--McCain's wife's portfolio earns that much in fifteen seconds.

This seems to indicate a degree of out-of-touchness that dwarfs even that of George H. W. Bush confronted with the supermarket scanner.

Barack Obama: "[I]t's like these guys [the Republicans] take pride in being ignorant."

One of Mark Kleiman's commenters: "Maybe John McCain can afford to laugh about inflating your tires. I guess once you marry a hundred million bucks you don't have to worry about your gas mileage. But there are lots of us out there who are really hurting, and we don't think it's funny at all. Just shows how out of touch he is. Not only that: he wants to charge you $25 for a tire gauge you can get for $2.99 at Ace Hardware. Who knows? Maybe he thinks that's a good deal. But he's not getting my $25. Let him ask his oil company buddies..."

Michael Froomkin: "Why are we surprised that the GOP is against stuff that reduces oil consumption? Republicans have always been against rules that encourage conservation. Conservation is bad for oil profits, and those oil profits turn into campaign contributions..."

Another observer: "Honestly, I just am at a loss for words at this point. At least I understood the idiotic caricatures and false memes they spread about Gore and Kerry, but I'm increasingly feeling like John McCain would at Defcon 16. I just can't keep up with what the kids are doing these days..."

Another observer: "There's a bigger fight going on here.... It's an article of faith among greens that 'there is no silver bullet -- what we need is silver buckshot'. In other words, we're not going to be able to replace the big, highly concentrated, brute force industrial energy system that fossils built. We're going to have to produce, distribute, and use energy in a much smarter way, and that means doing thousands of little things.... These things will buffer our shift to a system with new sources (clean electricity) and new techniques (plug-in hybrids, public transit, and transit-oriented development).... Obama... understand[s] the energy efficiency and conservation approach and actually try to present it to the American people. Republicans want to nip it in the bud -- that's why they are so aggressively jumping on the tire gauge thing. They want to make it seem like a small and silly response to a very big problem. But all the things we need to do will seem small and silly in isolation; it's the portfolio approach that will work..."

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But McCain is having money problems: problems raising money for the general election.

He has just gotten $1,000,000 from oil companies in the weeks surrounding his flip-flop on offshore drilling. The week before he flipped, Hess held a fundraiser for McCain--dangling the checks in front of him. He flips:

TPM Election Central | Talking Points Memo | Report: Hess Execs Ponied Up Huge Money Before McCain's Drilling Flip: The Los Angeles Times digs up some more detail on the Hess Corporation-McCain story, reporting that the big fundraiser where all the Hess execs chipped in huge sums took place just before McCain reversed his previous opposition to offshore drilling:

On June 10, John B. Hess, a top executive at the oil company with his family name, summoned friends to the 21 Club, a former speakeasy in Manhattan, and delivered $285,000 to John McCain and the Republican National Committee. A week later, McCain traveled to Texas and announced his support for offshore oil drilling... Hess was one of half a dozen hosts who tapped friends for the maximum $28,500 donation to the GOP. Others included investor Henry Kravis and hedge fund mogul Paul E. Singer. McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said there was no link between the money and McCain's stand. "Mr. Hess was fundraising before Sen. McCain made the announcement," he said...

Hess has clammed up and is refusing to explain what happened....

Here's a table detailing the contributions:

J. Barclay Collins Hess Corp. Attorney $28,500 19-Jun
John B. Hess Hess Corp. Executive $28,500 24-Jun
Susan K. Hess Homemaker Homemaker $28,500 24-Jun
Norma W. Hess Retired Retired $28,500 24-Jun
John J. O'Connor Hess Corp. Executive $28,500 24-Jun
Lawrence Ornstein Hess Corp. Senior VP $28,500 24-Jun
John Reilly Hess Corp. Executive $28,500 24-Jun
Alice Rocchio Hess Corp. Office Manager $28,500 24-Jun
John Scelfo Hess Corp. Senior VP of Finance $28,500 24-Jun
F. Borden Walker Hess Corp. Businessman $28,500 24-Jun....

Late Late Update: A Hess office manager and her husband, an Amtrak worker, each chipped in $28,000 apiece, too. Late Late Late Update: Turns out that the office manager and her Amtrak husband rent their home in Flushing, Queens....

TPM Election Central | Talking Points Memo | Hess Employee Who Gave $28,500 To McCain Effort Is A Renter: Here's a bit more on Alice and Pasquale Rocchio, the couple who each gave $28,500 to the RNC-McCain fund on the same day that eight Hess Corporation execs and/or Hess family members gave the same.... Alice is a Hess "office manager," and Pasquale is an Amtrak "track foreman." The two live in a middle class neighborhood in Flushing, Queens.... [T]he Rocchios rent their home.... Late Update.... [M]edian household income in the Rocchios' zip code is $58,069...

Comments

[Neil B.]

Here's something to help shut down the Republican Party: Paris Hilton strikes back! Really: this is cute, witty and well done, and even her energy policy sounds good. McBane had this coming:

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/64ad536a6d

What's so hilarious and hypocritical about McCain's complaints is that he opposed offshore drilling until a few weeks ago, so he can't blame the current prices any more on Obama than on himself (and it would be several cents per gallon anyway, big whoop - we would have saved a lot more with strict CAFE standards and heavy use of birth control to reduce demand (per capita, and the capitas ...) But we know who opposed all of that don't we ...

[Neil B.]

Heh, OK Brad it's cool that you already got the point ...
Perfect commentary BTW.

[christofay]

Well, that doesn't sucker you into contributing? How about the Made in China tire gauge, a $600 dollar instant-rebate against your kids' future taxes, a 4 color glossy photo of McCain standing on the Capitol steps winning wars, and the zombie propped up in the corner pontificating about libertarianism and national economics for the xtra low contribution of $25? Doesn't that make you the chest thumping conservative?

[christofay]

Cutting off the Republicans' access to the Federal govt where "Reagan showed us deficits don't matter" is helping to cut down the Republican party. Put Washington on a diet. They're all Republicans there.

[vtcodger]

Rational tire inflation is one of the zillion steps Americans should probably take to bring energy usage under control. Just because no one seems to know it let me point out that one of those obscure little sets of data tattooed on most cars doorposts is a chart that includes the recommended tire pressures. (They are sometimes kind of weird incidentally). You can buy special tire caps that indicate when the pressure is low by turning yellow, then red. They cost about $12-16 for a set of four. Checking them every few weeks takes about 30 seconds. They will pay for themselves the first or second time your tire sucks up a nail and slowly goes flat -- which has happened to me at least ten times in the past 20 years. If you catch the tire before driving on it flat, odds are that it can be plugged for a few bucks rather than replaced. Here's a link to one source. http://www.autoaccessconnect.com/tiairprinvas.html There are others

[PaulC]

But they do take pride in being ignorant. Anyone who has been through middle school or the equivalent understands the personality type. The problem is that pointing it out just makes you "elitist", so as much as I like hearing Obama say it, I'm not sure it helps him. I think it's a power thing. The more powerful you are, the stupider you can be and still get what you want. Thus, being very very ignorant and yet to all appearances successful is something to brag about.

[tegwar]

Here's what's funny. And what a quality journalist ought to point out... Obama isn't advocating properly inflating tires as a solution to energy problems (as a contribution, sure). He was observing that such a simple act saves more fuel than McCain's offshore drilling proposal would find. To mock tire inflation as silly and ineffective is to mock offshore drilling as even more silly and even more ineffective. Clowns.

[PaulC]

Has anyone done an analysis comparing the impact of maintaining optimum tire pressure with offshore drilling? Given the limited offshore reserves and the fact that $100/year of savings is in the present not 7-10 years in the future, keeping your tires inflated sounds like a pretty good plan to me.

I'd also hope that 10 years from now we'd be making major steps away from fossil fuel (wishful thinking I know) although petroleum will be useful in plastics and chemicals for the foreseeable future.

[PSP]

JFred. Do the math.

I fill the gas tank two or three times a week. That was $56 this morning. So, if I just assume twice a week and 50 weeks per year to keep the numbers easy, I spend approximately $5600 on gas annually. If I improve my milage by three percent, I save $168 per year.

In fact, the assumptions produce a number lower than my actual usage, and 3% is a low ball estimate, so the savings is even greater.