McCain Misleads on Obama (Again)

I'm a little late on the uptake here, but since I saw Obama's recent energy speech and heard McCain's paltry energy slams on Obama, I just wanted to throw up a quick post here (to add to the last article I posted on how McCain blatantly misled on Obama's visit to Germany).

Here's what McCain said about Obama on energy publically and in this press release:

"We need oil drilling and we need it now offshore. We need it now. [Barack Obama] has consistently opposed it. He has opposed nuclear power. He has opposed reprocessing. He has opposed storage. The only thing I've heard him say is that we should inflate our tires. So he has no plan for addressing the energy challenges that we face. And we need drilling everywhere that the states and the governors, such as in the state of Florida, approve of." (emphasis added)

Now I put this quite in here to sack McCain for his fake argument on Obama's energy plan, but should quickly note with the oil drilling argument, it's pretty thin ice 'ol McCain has been stacking his energy plan on, claiming that it would provide some kind of relief for gas prices: “As a matter of fairness to the American people, and a matter of duty for our government, we must deal with the here and now and assure affordable fuel for America by increasing domestic production.” Well, that argument falls through, as has been noted by many recently; PolitiFact.com brings up the obvious rebuttal many have been pointing out: "Even if offshore drilling areas opened up tomorrow, experts say it would take at least 10 years to realize any significant production" (they also do a great job of chopping up the argument in more depth here, where they rate McCain's claims on the utility of drilling as "false"). Miles, a buddy of mine who writes a great blog on energy issues, did write a recent piece on the Democrats' openness to drilling as part of a compromise plan (which I believe Obama has come out in support of); the plan seems fair in my view, as compromise does by definition mean giving ground at times and departing from what's perfect for what may be good. (By the way, Obama also isn't opposed to nuclear power, as McCain claims above; rather, while he doesn't seem to be singing its praises as the best option, he does point out in this overview of his plan that "it is unlikely that we can meet our aggressive climate goals if we eliminate nuclear power as an option.")

But, in terms of McCain's other lame points (above), about Obama not having an energy plan, I mean, even though he relies on his wife to do anything computer-related, he might have had his wife or some staffer check Obama's website before he made this comment; turns out, what do you know, there is a plan on Obama's website. Of course McCain knew he was being misleading, but apparently he just didn't care (going so far as to send out tire gauges that said "Obama's Energy Plan" on them). It's pretty lame to see such blatant misrepresentation though, and doesn't do much for my view of McCain's integrity. It also doesn't help his case when he turns around and admits that Obama was right on the basic point that people can save fuel by keeping their tires pumped up (something I've got to check on my own car now that I'm thinking about it):



Here's Obama responding to McCain's turnaround, and below is Obama's boo-yow energy address from a few weeks ago--it's encouraging if you ask me (and hey, may even qualify as a "plan"):