Aug 06 2008
It’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant
Pure win. It is great to see a democrat willing to say something this blunt and funny. Obama said it in response to the jabs taken at him by various Republicans and pundits about his suggestion to keep car tires inflated properly. On top of that he explicitly called out their statements as lies. Way to take the FUD spewed out and throw it back at them. I hope he keeps this up and only wish Gore and Kerry had done the same.
Choice quote from the Huffington Post:
Speaking to a crowd in Berea, Ohio, Obama went off on a riff, laughing at Republicans who are isolating his call for tire inflation as the linchpin of his energy plan. After noting that his energy policy has a lot more to it, Obama circled back to wonder why Republicans were choosing to mock an idea, small though it was, that could actually help matters.
“Now two points,” Obama told the crowd. “One, they know they’re lying about what my energy plan is, but the other thing is they’re making fun of a step that every expert says would absolutely reduce our oil consumption by three to four percent. It’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant.”
Obama was responding to a question when he mentioned the tires. The man asked what can we as individuals do to reduce our dependency on oil. This wasn’t the central part of his plan as it has been portrayed.
For the record keeping proper inflation is an easy way, among others, to improve the mileage of your car. There is a government website which lists several ways to improve your mileage. Just that could increase your gas mileage by 4%. Changing your driving habits is more dramatic – up to another 50% difference. According to another government site the average car drives 12,000 miles per year and gets 25 mpg. Combining that with one estimate that there are 143 million cars on the road the current consumption is about 68.5 billion gallons of gas per year. I’m just spit-balling here but assuming the average car could get a 10% boost on it’s fuel economy by making some simple changes we’re looking at almost 7 billion gallons of gasoline saved per year. That’s an impressive amount.
Taking pride in being ignorant indeed.