Mockery

It's become fairly clear that the Repuglican's main strategy for the 2008 Presidential election is to mock, mock, and mock some more. There does not seem to be any other strategy or even motivation than mockery.

Take this charming image, an actual fundraising image from McSame's website. They - the entire Repug operation - are mocking Obama for suggesting that everyone ensure their tires are properly inflated and their cars properly tuned in order to save gasoline.

Ha! Can you believe it! Simple steps that anyone could -- and should - do to save themselves money, and save our nation money? What a riot! What a joke! Of course, the Repugs are lying about Obama's position, suggesting that this is the only idea he's offered. But what are lies to Repuglicans? Just tools of the trade.

But gosh! Look at this:

The Bush administration estimates that expanded offshore drilling could increase oil production by 200,000 barrels per day by 2030. We use about 20 million barrels per day, so that would meet about 1% of our demand two decades from now. Meanwhile, efficiency experts say that keeping tires inflated can improve gas mileage by 3%, and regular maintenance can add another 4%. Many drivers already follow their advice, but if everyone else did, we could reduce demand several percentage points immediately. In other words: Obama is right.

In other words, if we all followed Obama's advice to check our tires and engine operation, we could reduce our use of oil as a nation by 7%, immediately. This would have an immediate effect on the cost of gas as well.


But of course, that's ludicrous. Let's start drilling instead.