Barack Obama is achieving something I thought impossible. He is out flip-flopping John Kerry. From the Republican National Committee site:
Today, Obama Is Proposing To Tap The Strategic Petroleum Reserve:
Obama Is Proposing To Tap The Strategic Petroleum Reserve. "In a reversal, Barack Obama is proposing tapping the nation's strategic oil reserves to help drive down gasoline prices, his campaign said Monday." (Tom Raum, "Obama: Tap Nation's Oil Reserve To Help Gas Prices," The Associated Press, 8/4/08)
But Just Last Month, Obama Opposed Tapping The Reserve, Arguing That It Should Be Used For Genuine Emergencies Like A Terrorist Attack On Oil Supplies:
Obama: "I do not believe that we should use the strategic oil reserves at this point. I have said and, in fact, supported a congressional resolution that said that we should suspend putting more oil into the strategic oil reserve, but the strategic oil reserve, I think, has to be reserved for a genuine emergency. You have a situation, let's say, where there was a major oil facility in Saudi Arabia that was destroyed as a consequence of terrorist acts, and you suddenly had huge amounts of oil taken out of the world market, we wouldn't just be seeing $4-a-gallon oil. We could see a situation where entire sectors of the country had no oil to function at all. And that's what the strategic oil reserve has to be for." (Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks At Media Availability, St. Louis, MO, 7/7/08)
Flip. Flop. Again.
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14 comments:
Boy are you smitten...
Somehow in your love-struck mind you've rationalized that it's ok for John McCain to "flip flop" (or, for the rest of us, "change his mind") on everything from first denouncing the Dominionist right-wing and later embracing them and even seeking their support and endorsement all the way to, you guessed it, drilling off-shore even though he had long opposed it and admitted even after his own "flip flop" that it wasn't likely to help at all in the short term....
But Sen. Obama changing his position based on the facts on the ground? Heresy! Eek! Call out the dogs! There be flip-flops on the loose!
...Whatever floats your boat, John.
It was not even a month ago that Obama said he was against tapping into the strategic petroleum reserve!
And the price of a barrel of oil has been dropping since President Bush pulled the exec. order banning offshore drilling. (Not enough, though.) Why? Futures speculators realize that we might finally be serious about drilling for oil. Congress still has its ban in place of course.
Schools open for the fall soon. School board meetings will be ghastly, as schools have to deal with unbudgeted increases in fuel costs.
Who will they blame? Reid, Pelosi, and Obama.
It was barely more than a month ago that McCain said he was against off-shore drilling and claimed the mantle of 'environmentalist maverick.'
And in 2000 he very famously denounced the so-called "religious right" yet here he is in 2008 seeking out the likes of "Rev." John 'the Catholic Church is the Great Whore' Hagee.
PS: Speculators don't bid on oil a decade out (about how long it would take from today til any new oil derricks produce).
You can drop the spin every now and then, John. It's ok.
The price of oil was dropping before Bush's move due to declining use -- people are conserving gas, filling their tires properly and keeping their cars tuned up.
What's that? Yep, you read that right. Keeping your tires properly inflated and your engine running smoothly saves gas. In fact, according the Bush's own Administration statistics it can save more gallons of gas right now than any new oil wells are likely to produce 8-10 years from now.
That's why Obama was simply saying what drivers from NASCAR to me and you already knew... keep your car running right, and you'll save on gas.
Boy are you smitten, Rob!
Another Obama Gaffe, or just a flat out lie?
You tell me.
Obama's right (Powerline's using what's known among conservatives as "fuzzy math").
In fact Grey, he's more than right. Using the White House's own calculations, we can, right now, save more fuel just by inflating tires properly and tuning our engines than the amount of fuel we can derive from oil out of any new off-shore drills (which will take 8-10 years to get to your local gas stations as it is)...
Why is it that conservative partisans feel this need to constantly mock people who are simply telling the truth?
That's twice you've used that same link out of the democrat mouthpiece, Time Magazine Rob, and it's just as wrong the second time as it was the first time you tried to foist that manure on us.
As the guy in my SECOND link indicates, (notice I gave you TWO... count 'em, TWO different links) says,
"I can't help these people. I can't make it any simpler."
Do you wear Obama underwear, Rob?
How bad was the first post that John had to delete it? Sheesh.
Grey, I s'pose you think all the media's in the Dems' hands, eh?
How often do you wash that tinfoil hat of yours?
Again, rather than talk facts, you attack me with some sort of kindergartn-level ad hominem (underwear? seriously? are you even old enough to vote?).
You've linked to partisan attacks, not fact checks. You want other links? Fine, I'll do your work for you:
- Pres. Bush's own Dept. of Energy promotes proper tire inflation (And don't give me the bunk that 'the AP is in Obama's pocket too'... AP Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier was offered a job in the McCain Campaign
- The Auto Alliance -- an industry group of US and foreign automakers -- also suggests inflating tires to their proper pressure... I suppose you think GM and Ford are biased for Obama too, eh?
- Even major McCain backers like Govs. Ahnold Schwarzenegger and Charlie Crist (a potential veep candidate) agree that proper tire pressure saves fuel... but those guys are really super-secret Obama mouthpieces, right?
Problem is Rob, it's still either a gaffe, or a lie:
"Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor responded with two emails to reporters. One cited the U.S. Department of Energy tip: "Keep tires properly inflated and aligned to improve your gasoline mileage by around 3.3%."
That's from The Wall Street Journal.
No one is arguing tire inflation and keeping your car tuned won't help. As a mechanic, that makes me laugh though. What is there to "tuning" a car these days? Spark Plugs and air filters is about all there is to a tune up these days.
But 3.3%, as indicated in my earlier link, is about what LEAKS into the ocean from present oil fields... nothing even close to what would be gained by drilling.
So which is it Rob...
A gaffe, or a lie?
And you ignored my question.
Did you buy the boxers, or the briefs?
Grey - Stick to asking your fellow conservatives like David Vitter what kind of undies he's wearing (or, in his case, what brand of baby diapers)...
As for tire pressure, you're right. Even McCain now agrees with Obama that keeping your tires properly inflated saves fuel. (Perhaps you'll now whine that Sen. McCain is just an Obama mouthpiece.)
The point to the McCain attack (selling 90¢ tire gauges for $25 and falsely declaring they represent the entirety of Obama's comprehensive, sustainable Energy Plan) was that it was based on their lie that Obama's plan consisted of only those words of friendly advice to one of the folks at the Missouri town hall meeting.
But you take a different issue -- choosing to avoid another of McCain's lies -- and dispute the numbers behind the original Obama comment...
Get ready for your eyes to glaze over, but you asked so, again, I'll do your homework for you. And this time it's your math homework.
Obama said: "Making sure your tires are properly inflated, simple thing, but we could save all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling, if everybody was just inflating their tires and getting regular tuneups," Obama said. "You could actually save just as much."
Let's break down the numbers. Obama mentioned the ounce of prevention methods of proper tire inflation and regular car tune ups.
George Bush's Dept. of Energy estimates that drivers could improve gas mileage by 3.3% with proper tire inflation and 4% with regular tune-ups.
That's a total of 7.3%.
That same Bush Dept. of Energy indicates that US drivers consume 9.286mil barrels of oil per day for vehicle fuel.
That's about 3.4 billion barrels used for vehicle fuel in a year.
7.3% of 3.4 billion is ... 248 million barrels of oil saved each year.
And that's an immediate savings. Right now we could be doing this; as opposed to 8-10 years from now if the ban on outer continental shelf drilling were suddenly lifted.
To that end, the same Bush Dept. of Energy estimates there are 59 billion of barrels of oil untapped in the off-limits areas of the OCS. Sounds like a lot, but obviously the straws can only suck out so much at a time. Even the DOE admits that opening up the OCS "would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030".
Their data projections show that the first year of an opened OCS production would generate .01 million barrels per day (3.65mil brl/year) by 2018.
I don't know about you, but 248 million barrels through proper tire inflation and engine check-ups sounds like more than 3.65 million to me.
Let's take the DOE's best case scenario... the year 2030 when the OCS would, in theory, be at max production and oil rigs would be lining the left and right coasts over the objections of a plethora of governors and citizens...
Even in 2030, opening the OCS only adds .16 million new barrels per day (58.4 million per year).
Still sounds lower than 248 million...
And, you have to factor in that we could be doing things like checking our tire pressure and tuning our engine right now. Even at the best, most speedy, most efficient timelines every expert (including the conservative Bush administration folks) figures that OCS rigs wouldn't come online for another 8 years.
Improving fuel efficiency by 248 million barrels per year times 8 years is nearly 2 billion barrels of oil (ie, 2,000 million).
2,000 million is a whole lot more than 58.4 million.
Now sure, I've rounded here and there (usually rounding down on the savings end and up on the drilling end to try and give you the benefit of the doubt)... but every number I've used has come from the Dept. of Energy, currently a department under the purview of Pres. Bush. Note to that when you linked to Johnny "Hindrocket" Hinderaker before, he was forced to make several undocumented, unreferenced assumptions and had to discount a variety of factors (he cuts the estimated fuel efficiency of tire inflation by more than half and completely ignores the engine tuning factors) to come up with his lower figure of 90 million barrels saved per year... but even Hinderaker's 90 mil is more than the Bush government's own estimated 2030 max efficiency drilling output of 58.4 mil (notice too that Hinderaker keeps talking about max totals of oil available everywhere -- not just the off-shore drilling the GOP has been promoting of late -- but compares it to just the annual, not cumulative, savings of simple conservation measures).
Any way you slice it, we could be saving more per year through just those two simple conservation efforts Sen. Obama suggested to that citizen of the Show Me State than we could be drilling per year, even at max efficiency, by opening up those pristine areas of God's Creation off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.
...Got any more pointless underwear questions?
What I don't get is this: Is Obama running for president of the Triple AAA motor club, or president of the US?
McCain referenced AAA, not Obama.
That said, does Sen. McCain want his wife running for exotic dancer-of-the-month or First Lady?
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