Opinion: Tire gauge support, it turns out, is bipartisan
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Barack Obama has gotten some help in his willingness to engage Republicans in the presidential campaign’s latest sideshow: the folderol over tire gauges.
As our colleague Mark Silva at the Swamp has noted, the liberal activist group Americans United for Change found that the administration of George H.W. Bush -- the fellow with whom John McCain recently shared a short ride in a golf cart -- was touting the conservation benefits of properly pressurized tires 18 years ago.
Public service announcements that were part of a ‘Do Your Part, Drive Smart’’ campaign said that, as Silva writes, ‘Americans could save 50,000 barrels of oil a day with a little more air in their tires.’
The Swamp’s Frank James also recalls that McCain is on record offering low-bore tips to the public on the conservation front (practices that Dick Cheney once memorably said ‘may be a sign of personal virtue’ but are ‘not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy’).
James writes that back in April, McCain had this to say on the campaign trail:
‘And I’m sorry to tell you that the price of oil -- as far as I can tell -- is not gonna go down anytime soon until we eliminate our dependency on it. ‘We can do that as a nation -- we can turn out the lights five minutes earlier, we don’t have to drive the extra block.’
-- Don Frederick