This will be short and sweet. Not that the Obama people take my advice (lord knows), but the McCain campaign has given you a beautiful gift all wrapped up in a bow for you to hammer him on in swing states across the country.
The issue? Where is John McCain going to store all the radioactive nuclear waste his 45 new nuclear plants will produce? [More after the terrorist fist jump]
In every swing state, from Ohio, to Florida, to Colorado, Barack Obama can give a version of this stump speech:
"Now, Senator McCain says he wants to build 45 new nuclear plants across America as part of his energy policy. But all those nuclear plants will produce highly radioactive and dangerous waste that will stay that way for thousands of years.
So where is John McCain going to store all of that highly radioactive nuclear waste. Maybe he will store all of it here in [City, State]!
Just imagine, thousands of canisters of radioactive waste shipped to you like a book from Amazon.com.
But, this is a serious problem. Where you store the nuclear waste from a reactor has been one of the largest stumbling blocks to building new reactors. And, typical for Republicans, John McCain doesn't tell you where he's going to store the waste, if he even cares about it.
Not only that, Senator McCain voted in the US Senate against storing the nuclear waste we now produce in his hoe state of Arizona.
So, apparently, its OK to dump all that waste in Ohio, or Florida, or Colorado, but not in Arizona. In fact,
Well...I'm not going to create moire nuclear waste. My energy plan addresses our energy problems, without creating more radioactive waste. We need an energy plan that looks to the future, develops a new green economy and does it in an environmentally friendly way. That's what my plan does, and that's why I'm running for President of the United States."
Barack can tailor that speech to whichever community he's in. And, you can bet John McCain will have to explain where he is going to store all of that waste.
Ideally, you could figure out how much waste 45 new reactors would produce, and then be more specific about how much nuclear waste tonnage is involved.
But the point is for Obama to use the NIMBY principle to his advantage for a change.
He could even joke about how he suggested inflating yoru tired properly, but at least he didn't propose dumping _ tons of nuclear waste across America.
What would you rather have? Properly inflated tires that improve your gas mileage, or a nuclear waste repository in your community?
The seems like a no-brainer to me.
UPDATE: Video of McCain opposing even the transhippment of nuclear waste through Arizona.