The McCain campaign thinks that it's too cute by half in mocking the suggestion made by Barack Obama in a speech last week that people can lower gas consumption by insuring that their tires are properly inflated.
As Al Giordano notes, the kickoff started last Saturday when Minnesota Governor and VP wannabe Tim Pawlenty first used the tire gauge prop:
Rewind to Saturday: Pawlenty, in swing state Iowa("tell" number one) stumping for McCain, waves a tire gauge as if a magic wand to mock something Obama said about gasoline conservation from keeping car tires inflated:
Pawlenty a few minutes later pulled a prop out of his pocket. "Barack Obama stood up at a speech recently and said that one of the things that is really important from energy policy from his standpoint is to check the pressure in our tires, so here's a tire gauge and you can go out in the parking lot here and check your tires. Now, that's an interesting thing - - we want you to have good pressure in your tires, you know, it will very mildly add to your fuel efficiency -- but checking the air pressure in your tires is not an energy policy for the United States of America," Pawlenty said. The crowd applauded.
This was the shot across the bow in what was to become a full bore attack with the McCain campaign distributing tire gauges to reporters and sending out tire gauges to contributors who give $25 or more. Hell, it seems as if the McCain campaign thinks that anyone who checks the air pressure in their tires on a regular basis deserves to be derided for their sheer stupidity.
But what the McCain campaign fails to realize is that in mocking this suggestion by Obama, they are hitting the bullseye in mocking every single working class male who prides himself in knowing how to change the oil in his car. The corner mechanic. The guy who already knows that proper tire pressure adds to fuel efficiency because they've put it to practice long before gas hit $4 a gallon. The NASCAR guy.
And now John McCain thinks these people are to be derided and mocked for knowing a basic fact about tires and fuel efficiency. A basic fact that they've likey preached to their friends, family and for some, even their customers.
The crux of this stunt by the McCain campaign is to convince people that proper tire inflation is the entirety of Obama's energy policy which only works when you think people live in a cave. So by all means, keep giving out those tire gauges because every time someone uses one it will serve as a reminder, made all the easier with his name imprinted on it, just whose advice they are following.