Inflate Your Tires to Solve Our Energy Problems

Some people just don't get the point, even Obama. Obama seems to think that McCain was taking issue with whether or not inflating your tires saves gas, when in fact he was taking issue with whether or not telling people to inflate their tires is an energy policy or not. This from McCain pretty much sums it up: "That's not an energy plan, my friends -- that's a public service announcement." And if inflating your tires IS an energy policy, then at least McCain is doing something about it by handing out tire pressure gauges. I don't think either one has what I would consider a satisfactory energy policy but my point here is being honest about what was and was not said and what does and does not constitute an energy policy. But then again, at least Obama appears to be open, to some degree, to considering ideas to which he was previously opposed.

And as to being honest about what was and was not said, the recent tire flap harkens back to the flap over McCain's remark over troops in Iraq for 100 years.  The point was an arrangement not unlike the fact that we, to this day, have troops in Germany, Japan, and South Korea. Do people who have taken issue with McCain's comment think that these other troop deployments have been a bad thing? And if these have been a good thing then why wouldn't the exact same arrangement in Iraq not also be a good thing? The existing arrangements have been mutually beneficial for over 50 years and show no signs of major changes, so why would claims of 100 years of a similar arrangement in Iraq be unreasonable?