Place an Ad | Subscribe | Advertise With Us

Reader lets Senator Obama defend himself

Richard Rafter
Published: August 11, 2008

In response to the recent cartoon satirizing Senator Obama’s comment about properly inflated tires. Let him speak for himself.

“You know the other day I was in a town hall meeting and I laid out my plans for investing $15 billion a year in energy efficient cars and a new electricity grid and somebody said, ‘Well, what can I do?
What can individuals do?’” Obama recalled.

“So I told them something simple,” Obama said. “I said, ‘You know what? You can inflate your tires to the proper levels and that if everybody in America inflated their tires to the proper level, we would
actually probably save more oil than all the oil we’d get from John McCain drilling right below his feet there, or wherever he was going to drill.’”

“So now the Republicans are going around — this is the kind of thing they do. I don’t understand it! They’re going around, they’re sending like little tire gages, making fun of this idea as if this is ‘Barack
Obama’s energy plan.’”

“Now two points. One, they know they’re lying about what my energy plan is, but the other thing is they’re making fun of a step that every expert says would absolutely reduce our oil consumption by 3 to
4 percent. It’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant.”

RICHARD RAFTER

Dale City

Reader Reactions

Posted by ( willow703 ) on August 12, 2008 at 10:56 am

jVA,
Sen. Obama did say he was, maybe, willing to drill as part of a program to reduce our independence. At 9:38 you praise him for his willingness to change his tune, at 9:46 you have him ridiculing his own stance.
About that 10 years, I heard an “expert” say last week that it is about 18 months from setting the platform to the first flow of oil or gas.
How long will it be before solar, wind, hydro, & nuclear power plants produce enough to make us independent of foreign oil?

Report Inappropriate Comment

Posted by ( jVA ) on August 12, 2008 at 10:29 am

“How can a flip flopper be a good leader? “

I guess you won’t be supporting McCain then. McCain has twenty six years in the senate. Its too easy to list his “flip flops”. Just in the past two months he’s flip flopped on off shore drilling, and he now agrees that checking your tire pressure is a good thing.

Here’s a short list of issues McCain has flipped on:

1) The Tobacco tax
2) Lobbyists in his campaign
3) The payroll tax
4) Cap and trade
5) Yucca mountain
6) Affirmative action in Arizona
7) Money from lobbyists
8) Transition teams
9) Iraq troop withdrawal timetable
10) Car emissions
11) Kicking Russia out of the G-8
12) Electric cars
13) Balancing the budget
14) Afghanistan
15) Tax cuts during war
16) etc; etc; etc;

We can list this stuff all day. All issues that McCain has changed his position on.

Bringing up the “flip flop” argument is lame and just means that you can’t defend your candidate’s positions. Better come up with something new for 2008, you’re running out of time.

Report Inappropriate Comment

Posted by ( RonCharest ) on August 12, 2008 at 10:19 am

Actually, we can immediately save 1.6 million barrels of oil per day by simply not exporting US extracted oil to overseas nations.

From Reuters:

“A record 1.6 million barrels a day in U.S. refined petroleum products were exported during the first four months of this year, up 33 percent from 1.2 million barrels a day over the same period in 2007. Shipments this February topped 1.8 million barrels a day for the first time during any month, according to final numbers from the Energy Department.“

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKN0325640920080703

So I guess the message here is:

“Open more off shore areas for leasing, even tnough the oil companies are not presently drilling on lease areas they already hold, so they can sell more overseas and keep American fuel prices artificially high.“

Good work, if you can get it. I guess oil companies can get it through owning the President/Vice President, and most senior administration officials (Condoleeza Rice has an Exxon oil tanker named after her).

Report Inappropriate Comment

Posted by ( Godsaveus ) on August 12, 2008 at 9:06 am

raywilliams.
For what kind of leader are you voting?
Is Obama the leader that brings “change”?
Yes, a leader that “change” his mind every day, in the direction that the wind blows, only to win the election. That is why Obama do not have a solid lead against McCain .
How can a flip flopper be a good leader?
About the tires , Obama is right , since the last week that I start gauging the pressure of my tires ,I can see that the price of gas is falling down.

Report Inappropriate Comment

Posted by ( cobra ) on August 12, 2008 at 9:05 am

It’s been a great week watching Pelosi on her book tour trying to spin the issue of an up or down vote on off shore drilling. She knows damn well that it will pass. The American People demand that we tap into our own resources. Congress is the Peoples House. We demand a vote Pelosi. She even advised those Democrats that are in tough relection campaigns to ride both sides of the fence while in their home districts. Libs have badly mismanaged this issue. It is coming back to bite them right in the rear end. BHO is on a fast train to no where these days. We saw a little taste of his Leadership abilities with the Russia/Georgia conflict. He had no clue.

Report Inappropriate Comment

Posted by ( jVA ) on August 12, 2008 at 8:46 am

“Now Sen. Obama agrees with Paris Hilton. We should drill as part of a program to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.“

I find it amazing that you have the nerve to write this willow703. At the very top of this page is a direct quote from Obama basically ridiculing the idea of drilling to solve the energy crisis. He says “we’ll save more oil by inflating tires than we’d get from drilling”.

So no, he’s not “agreeing with Paris Hilton”. He’s throwing the Republicans and their oil lobbyists a bone and looking for a compromise. It has nothing to do with believing offshore drilling is going to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Everybody - including McCain and Obama - knows that increased drilling isn’t going to add more oil to our supplies for ten years or more. And by then the demand will be even greater so its kind of a wash.

Report Inappropriate Comment

Posted by ( jVA ) on August 12, 2008 at 8:38 am

“Sen. Obama’s defence is that he is now willing to, maybe, drill for oil here in the US”

I think its an admirable change of stance. Obama has said that if compromising on offshore drilling would allow for passage of a broader alternative energy bill, he would be open to compromise.

That’s called “reaching across the aisle”. How many times have you seen that happen in the last eight years?

Nice letter from Mr. Rafter btw. If we can reduce oil consumption immediately by 4% just by getting everybody to properly inflate their tires, why is John McCain out there ridiculing the idea instead of urging everybody to go inflate their tires?

Report Inappropriate Comment

Posted by ( willow703 ) on August 12, 2008 at 8:00 am

Another point in Sen. Obama’s defence is that he is now willing to, maybe, drill for oil here in the US. The oil companies have 68 million acres in current oil leases. The Democrats say drill on those leases first.
All of the Democrats have done a 180, they have said for years “You can’t drill there, (on the 68 million acres), you’ll destroy the ecosystem.“ There is a large oil & gas field off the gulf coast of Florida. Florida has said, “No drilling!“ Now Sen. Obama agrees with Paris Hilton. We should drill as part of a program to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. But I have seen no change in the Democratic leadership of Congress.
Remember: The President proposes, the Congress disposes.

Report Inappropriate Comment

Posted by ( raywilliams ) on August 12, 2008 at 5:18 am

Are we looking to elect a leader or another tired old swift boat captain? My vote goes to leadership that understands America - Senator Obama.

Report Inappropriate Comment