Obama's Answer to Gas Prices - "Inflate your Tires"

No, really!



Did you get that? Taking care of your car would work better than drilling for our own oil.

John at Powerline fact checks:

"Just for fun, I did the math. Properly inflating your tires can improve gas mileage by 3%. Of course, many people already keep their tires properly inflated, and many more are at least close to being properly inflated. Let's be generous and assume that one-half of the total possible savings would be realized if we all inflated our tires properly; that's a net gain of 1.5% fuel efficiency.

Americans drive approximately 2,880 billion miles per year. If we average 24 mpg, we use around 120 billion gallons of gasoline in our vehicles. If, through perfect tire inflation, we improved our collective fuel efficiency by 1.5%, that would be 1.8 billion gallons. A barrel of oil produces around 20 gallons of gasoline, so the total savings available through tire inflation is approximately 90,000,000 barrels of oil annually.

How does this stack up against "all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling?"

ANWR: 10 billion barrels
Outer Continental Shelf: 18 billion barrels (estimated; the actual total is undoubtedly much higher, since exploration has been banned)
Oil shale: 1 trillion barrels

So, on the above assumptions, it would take only 11,308 years of proper tire inflation to equal "all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling."

Obama is a curious case. He gives the impression of being an intelligent guy, but through his unscripted comments we have learned that he knows little about history, science or mathematics. He also seems rather shockingly short on common sense, as this most recent gaffe illustrates."

Yeah. There is a word for that that describes Obama in a nutshell.

Inflated.

I've got your "silly" and raise you a "sillier"

Ambinder, reports:

"John Weaver, for years one of John McCain's closest friends and confidants, has been in exile since his resignation from McCain's presidential campaign last year. With the exception of an occasional interview, he has, by his own account, bit his tongue as McCain's campaign has adopted a strategy that Weaver believes "diminishes John McCain."

With the release today of a McCain television ad blasting Obama for celebrity preening while gas prices rise, and a memo that accuses Obama of putting his own aggrandizement before the country, Weaver said he's had "enough."

The ad's premise, he said, is "childish."

"John's been a celebrity ever since he was shot down," Weaver said. "Whatever that means. And I recall Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush going overseas and all those waving American flags."
Weaver remains in contact with senior McCain strategists and, for a while early this year, regularly talked to McCain.

The strategy of driving up Obama's negatives "reduces McCain on the stage," Weaver said.
"For McCain to win in such troubled times, he needs to begin telling the American people how he intends to lead us. That McCain exists. He can inspire the country to greatness."

He added: "There is legitimate mockery of a political campaign now, and it isn't at Obama's. For McCain's sake, this tomfoolery needs to stop."

Well, I might agree, because Obama has enough baggage that is legit. But McCain's ad is targeted at the personal that Obama himself has been fostering with all "pomp and ceremony" and world tours and such. I mean, who's the star after all?

But while we are on the subject Marc, what's the big deal about McCain's $520 shoes?

Talk about "silly".

Obama's Missed Troop Visit - The "Fact" is he didn't go

I can't remember the last time I seen the MSM try to hard to cover up for a political candidate. No, I take that back, they did it with Kerry. Since Obama - for whatever lame reason - missed visiting wounded troops in Germany, the media has gone into full on "protect mode" to "fact check" and "correct and clarify".

Regardless of the reasons he missed the visit. From Lynn Sweet's blog comes this explanation from Obama.

"Here's the explanation Obama gave Saturday in London when asked about the cancelled visit to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center:

Q. Can you clear up the controversy about visiting the troops in Germany, the Pentagon said you were more welcome to come but you cant bring the media and were not allowed to bring campaign staff other than that you are more than welcome anytime, inaudible, we have gotten a few conflicting claims...

OBAMA: The staff was working this so I don't know each and every detail but here is what I understand happened. We had scheduled to go, we had no problem at all in leaving, we always leave press and staff off that is why we left it off the schedule. We were treating it in the same way we treat a visit to Walter Reed which I was able to do a few weeks ago without any fanfare whatsoever. I was going to be accompanied by one of my advisors, former military officer. And we got notice that he would be treated as a campaign person and it would therefore be perceived as political because he had endorsed my candidacy but he wasn't on the senate staff.

That triggered then a concern that maybe our visit was going to be perceived as political and the last thing that I want to do is have injured soldiers and the staff at these wonderful institutions having to sort through whether this is political or not or get caught in the crossfire between campaigns. So rather than go forward and potentially get caught up in what might have been considered a political controversy of some sort what we decided was that we not make a visit and instead I would call some of the troops that were that. So that essentially would be the extent of the story."

Senator, they wouldn't have sorted through a thing. Maybe some of them didn't even want you there. It's not a matter of who on your campaign pulled the trigger, the fact is that it's YOUR campaign and YOU should have called the shot to find a way to visit the troops.

Nothing can change the fact that you weren't in command of the situation and thus not there.

That's the only "Fact" that matters.

Obama's VP picks? So long as it's not Hillary

God, we couldn't get this lucky. Via Ambinder:

"The following three Democrats are being vetted by Eric Holder and Caroline Kennedy and there is independent evidence that Obama is taking a serious look at them:

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Gov. Tim Kaine, Sen. Evan Bayh.

Additionally, allies of Sen. Joe Biden say that he is under serious consideration, although he is not being subjected to the same level of vetting.

The huffing and puffing over Kaine is the result of Kaine's allies getting excited...and confirming what has been reported here and elsewhere, which is that Kaine is being vetted and that Obama is seriously considering him. Based on discussions with high-level Obama aides, I do not get the impression that Obama has made up his mind yet. These aides do say that Obama is narrowing his choices.

Now -- the way to look at these names, I think, is to analyze what picking each would say about the Obama presidency and what he expects in a vice president.

Sebelius and Kaine are both governing choices, not campaign choices. They're not going to match Obama's enthusiasm levels; they're not going to do all that well at the VP debates; they're not even going to solve political problems (even Kaine). But they are solid; they are centrist-in-style; they are Washington outsiders; they know how to balance budgets and deal with Republicans. As an historical analogy, think Clinton's choice of Gore."

Ok, that's a lefty view. But here is it is from the Right. "Anybody but Clinton".

Either of the above choices works for us on the right. It's not so amazing that the Light Being would pick a Biden or Kane so to not dim his - er, bulb. Ann Carpenter at Town Hall does her own vetting.

"Evan Bayh: Too young, too inexperienced to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Joe Biden: Most likely to say something on October 30 that will blow it for Obama.

Tim Kaine: Massive eyebrow problems. Sort of creepy. (Photo evidence). I live in Virginia and can't think of anything notable he has done.

Kathleen Sebelius: Will outrage all the Hillary people because Obama picked a woman other than Hillary."

That last one is the most true.

The only "pick" that should scare us and which gives Obama the best chance to win is Hillary Clinton. Unless he does the backlash is going to cost him dearly in November.

"Creepy" Obama

Rick Moran on the Ten Things that creep him out about Barack Obama.


just TEN?

Obama checks into Hospital for Hip Problem

But I thought he was such a HE MAN, you know, not sweating or anything!

"All that basketball seems to be taking at least a slight toll on Sen. Barack Obama's nearly 47-year-old body.

Late Sunday, he visited the University of Chicago Medical Center to have a sore hip checked by an orthopedic doctor. It has been bothering him since before the start of his overseas trip on July 17.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the basketball injury is nothing serious, but some X-rays were taken."

I don't know. Bad hips at 47, god knows what they'll be like in 2018 when he leaves office!

Big Bump for Barry After World Tour

Well you would expect something after spending a few million.

"PRINCETON, NJ -- Barack Obama now leads John McCain among national registered voters by a 49% to 40% margin in Gallup Poll Daily tracking conducted July 24-26.

This represents a continuation of Obama's front-runner position evident in the last three Gallup Poll Daily tracking updates. The margin, coincident with the extensive U.S. news coverage of Obama's foreign tour, is the largest for Obama over McCain measured since Gallup began tracking the general election horserace in March. (To view the complete trend since March 7, 2008, click here.)

A key question remains as to whether this "bounce" is short-term (as happens to bounces in some instances following intense publicity surrounding a convention) or if his lead will persist -- the answer to which will become evident in the next several days."

Of course we have to balance this with other polls - such as Fox, which showed next to nothing in a bounce. While Gallup is normally accurate, they are not posting the sample break down and this sounds that it was weighted Democrat. Nevertheless, and giving WIDE benefit of the doubt, while 9 points is hefty, you have to shave off the margin of error and it's not that big of a deal. Actually I'll bet the Obama camp is a little worried that he shot his wad - so to speak - before Labor Day.

In fact, now that I think about it, for all the Obamamania, the hoop and holler and over the top media coverage and adulation 9 points isn't really much at all.

Spinning on the Obama Visit in Afghanistan

I told you about this last week, that I had received several emails that mirrored the one described here.

"An Army officer’s negative e-mail account of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s visit with the troops in Afghanistan that set the blogosphere ablaze prompted Army officials to correct aspects of the e-mail and resulted in a statement from the message’s author that “some of the information that was put out in my e-mail was wrong.”

The e-mail, signed by Capt. Jeffrey S. Porter at Bagram Airbase, characterized Obama’s July 19 visit with soldiers there as contrary to the positive portrayals of the mainstream press.

“As the soldiers where (sic) lined up to shake his hand he blew them off and didn’t say a word as he went into the conference room to meet the general,” the e-mail said.

Porter wrote that Obama then went straight to the base’s “Clamshell” or recreation facility to pose for “publicity pictures playing basketball” and “shunned the opportunity to talk to soldiers to thank them for their service. I swear we got more thanks from the NBA Basketball Players or the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders than from one of the Senators, who wants to be the President of the United States. I just don’t understand how anyone would want him to be our Commander-in-Chief. It was almost that he was scared to be around those that provide the freedom for him and our great country.”

Army Times sent an e-mail to Porter, a Utah Army National Guard member assigned to the 142nd Military Intelligence Battalion, asking if he could verify that he wrote the controversial e-mail and requesting an interview.

Porter’s reply declined the interview request, but said:

“I am writing this to ask that you delete my e-mail and not forward it, after checking my sources some of the information that was put out in my e-mail was wrong. This e-mail was meant only for my family. Please respect my wishes and delete the e-mail and if there are any blogs you have my e-mail portrayed on I would ask if you would take it down too.”

When contacted, Tiffany Porter who identified herself as his wife, said: “There were discrepancies in the e-mail, but I am not at liberty to say more.”

The Army refuted the accuracy of the account of the Obama visit.

“These comments are inappropriate and factually incorrect,” Bagram spokesman Lt. Col. Rumi Nielson-Green told the New York Daily News.

Obama didn’t play basketball at Bagram or visit the Clamshell, she said.

“We were a bit delayed ... as he took time to shake hands, speak to troops and pose for photographs,” Nielson-Green said."

While I didn't receive anything about him playing b-ball, they did tell me that the photo ops were extremely controlled - well staged, especially the mess hall shot.

I doubt the good Captain had any reason to lie and he hasn't recanted his email. Obama's campaign looks silly as hell trying to defend itself in this with it's silly "fight the smears" campaign.

I wonder, would he like to call Captain Porter and call him a liar?

UPDATE: I too received Captain Porter's email, here it is.

"Hello everyone,

As you know I am not a very political person. I just wanted to pass along that Senator Obama came to Bagram Afghanistan for about an hour on his visit to "The War Zone". I wanted to share with you what happened.
He got off the plane and got into a bullet proof vehicle, got to the area to meet with the Major General (2 Star) who is the commander here at Bagram.

As the Soldiers where lined up to shake his hand he blew them off and didn't say a word as he went into the conference room to meet the General. As he finished, the vehicles took him to the ClamShell (pretty much a big top tent that military personnel can play basketball or work out in with weights) so he could take his publicity pictures playing basketball. He again shunned the opportunity to talk to Soldiers to thank them for their service.

So really he was just here to make a showing for the American's back home that he is their candidate for President. I think that if you are going to make an effort to come all the way over here you would thank those that are providing the freedom that they are providing for you.

I swear we got more thanks from the NBA Basketball Players or the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders than from one of the Senators, who wants to be the President of the United States. I just don't understand how anyone would want him to be our Commander-and-Chief. It was almost that he was scared to be around those that provide the freedom for him and our great country.

If this is blunt and to the point I am sorry but I wanted you all to know what kind of caliber of person he really is. What you see in the news is all fake.

In service,

CPT Jeffrey S. Porter
Battle Captain
TF Wasatch
American Soldier