McCain Concedes: Tire Gauges Work

After days of mocking Barack Obama for promoting tire efficiency, John McCain admits that it's not a bad idea:

Republican John McCain appeared to back down on Tuesday in his dispute with his opponent Barack Obama over tire pressure. ...

The surprise came during a telephone town hall meeting McCain held on Tuesday with voters in Pennsylvania.

"Obama said a couple of days ago says we all should inflate our tires. I don't disagree with that. The American Automobile Association strongly recommends it," McCain said.

But he kept up his broad criticism of Obama on energy: "I ... don't think that that (inflating tires) is a way to become energy independent."

Obama poked fun at McCain over the admission Wednesday:

"It will be interesting to watch this debate between John McCain and John McCain," Obama said as he campaigned in Indiana with Sen. Evan Bayh, widely considered a top-tier candidate for running mate.

Comments

[louden]

Can someone please look into this issue:

I was listening to a John McCain press conference yesterday on XM (not sure what channel it was) but a reporter asked McCain if he thought the Iraq war had an impact on the current price of oil - and he said "no"...!!!!!!

Can some economic expert on the Obama campaign look into this!? I mean - I'll bet my house that the reduction in oil capacity and risk in the middle east because of the war has had 10 times more impact on oil prices than any offshore drilling might allow.

There's a campaign ad in there - take McCain to task on it! What hypocrisy! What a fool!

[vipersdad]

I may be the first one to note the annoying "pay for air" concessions you see at most filling stations these days. I think one thing that can happen with the profits that Oil Companies are enjoying is that they should be required to subsidize the air stations at local gas stations (vs. letting the local franchise owner cover the cost).

At a local Valero Station I got so mad that I will not go there again. The law says air should be free, but in order to get the free air you have to either deposit 75 cents or go in to the station and ask the attendant to activate the compressor. At the time there were around 6 - 8 people in line and I was not about to wait. I drove to 3 stations before I found "free air" that was truly "free." It's not a real incentive to keep your tires full.....

[BeatlesMania4]

Tires as an energy policy!?! LOL! Barack needs to just accept that the only way to get more oil is to drill it. I mean environmental degradation is no joke, but there is so much more technology available today to help drill safely. This new rumor circulating about Obama (http://tinyurl.com/6jb7l6) should take enough pressure off McCain to start hammering this point home and really seal the election for the Republicans in the Fall!

[vipersdad]

"Beware the terrible simplifiers"

Yes BeatlesMania4... Barack's energy policy - the entire plan - the whole speech he gave and all the detail on his website - all of it....

is based on tire pressure.

He was making a point - that the savings you get in consumption from "doing things like" keeping your tires properly inflated" and "keeping your car tuned up" will save more gas than we will get from new offshore leases for drilling.

He was mathematically correct - ESPECIALLY the longer it takes for those leases to yield their first barrels of oil.

But if you want to boil his entire policy down to tire pressure, then it would be equally fair for me to characterize McCain's energy policy as entirely based on drilling.... or .... let's keep the same addiction to oil going.... and.... it'll take until 2030 for those leases to have an impact on prices (source is DOE)... and it's a giant flip-flop of the message he delivered in his energy speech just last spring.

So I'll see your tire pressure and raise you one giant suck up to big oil, and a bad policy that is bad for America..... Country First - HA! Which Country? UAE? Saudi Arabia?

[Freesia2]

I just read this great idea on Andrew Sullivan's blog. He was quoting someone from the Washington Post who suggested:

"Free advice: The Obama Camp should totally co-opt the GOP's silly tire guage thing. They should start giving out tire gages with the Obama logo on them. They should thank them for the idea. They should promote it as a wonderful post-partisan effort to reduce our nation's dependence on foreign oil. If John McCain's finally on board, maybe we can get Newt to sign off as well!"

And they're right. Check the level of hot air in John McCain with an official Obama tire gauge. A useful, but pointed dig. Obama needs to turn McCain into a joke. He did it right there in Indiana when he said "It will be interesting to watch this debate between John McCain and John McCain."

Peggy Noonan made a point a few weeks back when she said that the Clinton camp made a mistake in their outrage over the nutcracker dolls. They missed an opportunity. Noonan said that a real woman leader like a Gold Meir would have bought up the nutcrackers and passed them out as party favors.

Humor can be a very effective weapon. And you don't have to use a thing except what your opponent handed you. Such a tire gauge. Hand them out.

[Freesia2]

My goodness, I didn't mean to repeat myself. My post apparently went through the Department of Redundancy Department. Apologies - I didn't mean to hog up the first page. And I'll say it again. I didn't mean to hog up the first page.

[vipersdad]

Ha! Firesign Theater Reference Noted.... You fuel!

Signed

Rednad Kcin

[Freesia2]

I just read this great idea on Andrew Sullivan's blog. He was quoting someone from the Washington Post who suggested:

"Free advice: The Obama Camp should totally co-opt the GOP's silly tire guage thing. They should start giving out tire gages with the Obama logo on them. They should thank them for the idea. They should promote it as a wonderful post-partisan effort to reduce our nation's dependence on foreign oil. If John McCain's finally on board, maybe we can get Newt to sign off as well!"

And they're right. Check the level of hot air in John McCain with an official Obama tire gauge. A useful, but pointed dig. Obama needs to turn McCain into a joke. He did it right there in Indiana when he said "It will be interesting to watch this debate between John McCain and John McCain."

Peggy Noonan made a point a few weeks back when she said that the Clinton camp made a mistake in their outrage over the nutcracker dolls. They missed an opportunity. Noonan said that a real woman leader like a Gold Meir would have bought up the nutcrackers and passed them out as party favors.

Humor can be a very effective weapon. And you don't have to use a thing except what your opponent handed you. Such as a tire gauge. Hand them out.

[isis]

They do work and it is dangerous to drive without decent tires and tire pressure.

[Whinger]

That old man river, he just keeps blundering along!

[Phil123]

Here's another great idea for Obama. How about if we didn't drink our coffee so hot? Why serve coffee at 190-200 degrees? We can't really drink it like that anyway. Obama should propose that we make coffee using water no hotter than 150 degrees. Think of all the energy that would save. Now there's an energy platform! He could hand out little thermometers.

[theMightyT]

Can you do more of your little math equations and post them here? Then you could claim that and tire gauges as his energy platform. Save you some time actually reading it.

[Amennyc]

Tire Gauge is the new Flag Pin

[Phil123]

Let me dissect Obama's absurd position on tire inflation.

If you check various sources, you find that a fairly liberal "rule of thumb" that is specific to underinflation says that 10% underinflation leads to as much as a 5% difference in mileage.

Note that 10% underinflation would be 29 PSI on a 32PSI tire. Most new cars will light idiot lights when you drift into this range, and your car will handle noticeably worse. The point is that if you were 10% underinflated, you would be aware of it.

Now let's say that EVERY car in America has its tires underinflated by 10%. (The real number may be more like 20%, but this is just a guess.) We'll use 100%.

This means that ALL Americans waste 5% in gas mileage. If the price of gas is $4 per gallon, this is $0.20 per gallon. (If my guess of 20% of cars was correct, then it's $0.04 per gallon.)

Now when McCain proposed a moratorium on gas tax, this amounts to between $0.40 and $0.60 per gallon, depending on how many of the taxes are cut.

At the time, Obama said that $0.40 per gallon wouldn't make any difference to most Americans.

So if I take Obama at his word, then if $0.40 per gallon makes no difference, then certainly $0.20 (or $0.04) per gallon makes even less of a difference.

"Inflate your tires" is a stunt.

[vipersdad]

My wife (who holds advanced degrees and also holds an executive position) drove around with grossly underinflated tires and the "idiot light" on in her car.... I discovered it when I took it out to get gas for her, I noted the light and asked how long it had been on.... she replied - "I don't know - months maybe?"

I think you are giving the average American driver a lot of credit if you think we are all keeping our tires properly inflated. It's a good reminder so I'm glad the debate is taking place.

[ComnCents]

Let"s dissect your position on tire inflation.

You obviously do not know much about cars, drivers and simple math.

[Phil123]

So explain where I went wrong, Einstein.

[ToddG]

Phil,

you are incorrect on multiple accounts here:

With regard to the tire pressure comment. Obama said that based on industry estimates, that inflating tires to their proper level would save 3-4% a year on wasted gas. CNN fact checked this and if you take the most aggressive numbers out there, the 3-4% is accurate. If you use the least aggressive numbers, you get about a 1% savings. So if we split the difference, we are looking at about a 2% savings in gas consumption.

As for the gas tax the problem with your argument is that if gas is selling at $4.00 a galon and the the gas tax is temporarily removed, the $0.40 per gallon removal of the tax does not mean the price of gas drops to $3.60 a gallon. What happens is that more people go to buy gas at the cheaper price and the price immediately shoots back up to $4.00 a gallon. The $0.40 that used to go to the government does not go into the consumers pocket but goes to the profit line of the oil companies and maybe a tiny bit goes to the guy who owns the gas station (but note that those folks really don't make much at all). This is basic supply and demand economics and is the reason that not a single economist stood up in support of either McCain or Clinton when they suggested it.

[Phil123]

Sir, you are correct on both counts:

1) The real number is 3-4%, or even as low as 2%. If you look at lots of sources, the most wildy liberal number you'll find is 5%. So I used 5% because I didn't want to use 3% and have someone come back and tell me that the "right" number was 5%. If I argued that Obama's claim was ridiculous using 5% (which I don't think anyone would contest as being "too small"), then the argument is nearly twice as strong if you use 3%.

2) You are correct that pricing and taxing change the way that people (and money) behave. So simply changing one parameter will seldom have exactly the effect that many would think. So dropping the tax would not reduce the price exactly by the amount of the tax dropped.

ALSO, increasing taxes on "Big Oil" would not have the simple outcome that many seem to imagine (that the gas price is unaffected, and "Big Oil" continues to operate with profits lower than they could get if they were simply a bank). "Windfall profits tax" would have a dire effect on the price of gasoline that would ripple throughout world economics in multiple ways - none of them good.

[ToddG]

So to put this into proper context, the inflate your tires comment was just that, an off hand comment that is factually true and can't hurt anyone. If your tires are not properly inflated, then inflating them properly will save you gas and you will have a longer time between visits to the pump. Basically, inflating your tires properly can only help. However, the Clinton/McCain gas tax holiday was a complete stunt that would not put any money into the consumers pocket and they both knew it which is why no economists backed them up and why both of them stopped talking about it.

[Phil123]

Yes. "Inflate your tires" is a good idea. It has nothing to do with the long-term enegy problem. He could have said "take an umbrella when it rains." That's also a good idea that doesn't create a new energy source.

I think we ALL agree that we have to start taking many steps to find new energy sources and to use the energy more wisely.

But the fact is that the world runs on oil right now, and we need an oil solution to hold us for a decade or so while we work on the alternative plans - none of which are ready for prime time.

Was a tax holiday a "stunt?" Who knows. I generally think that anytime a government allows the people to keep more of their hard-earned money, that it's good for the people and good for the economy. Is it a permanent fix? NO! Would it have eased the burden on American families who wanted to take summer vacations, and who would drive somewhere (in America) and spend their money having a good time? YES! Good for the families, and good for the economy.

I think it was the height of arrogance to say that a 40-cent per gallon immediate reduction was "meaningless" to most Americans (maybe it would be to millionaires like Obama), and it is similarly arrogant to say "just inflate your tires." This was like Marie Antoinette when she said "Let 'em eat cake."

[Phil123]

Obama said that inflating your tires would be just as effective as drilling. I never heard McCain "concede" that this was true, because it isn't true.

If inflating your tires were as effective as increasing supply, then you could eliminate the pinch you feel at the pump simply by inflating your tires, since you wouldn't need to visit the pump nearly as often.

[Russycle]

It is true, whether McCain admits it or not. As mentioned in other discussions here, inflating your tires can improve mileage by 1-5%, so lets say 3%. Coincidentally, the US produces 3% of the world's petroleum supply, so if we were able to double domestic production, the world's supply of oil would increase by 3%. Of course, US production peaked over 30 years ago, and experts estimate that we could increase the world's oil supply by only 0.2% in 20 years with more drilling. I'd say inflating your tires is a much sounder strategy for reducing foreign oil dependence.

[connorin]

slight difference between slight milage increast and increase in oil supply...even if the rest of your assumptions were true

[wm1066]

Okay ,here we have a differance between bush and mccain, bush would have never admitted that...
mccain should use that in an ad to show how he isn't bush!

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

This is a turning point at least on the energy issue. Voters do not like when candidates are not sincere about serious issues and McBush laughing at tire pressure is one example that has obviously back fired. Even NASCAR recommends maintaining tire pressure and having regular tuneups to maximize fuel economy and 4-5% better fuel economy will be a much bigger change in peoples lives than McBush gas tax holiday gimmick and will even eclipse offshore drilling in the long run.

[Phil123]

Who's McBush?

[vipersdad]

John W ("George") McSame.

[WaspStings]

Your daddy.

[JiminNC]

If McStugis' parents had only been so wise about the effectiveness of condoms ...