Ohio Tire Company and GOP Senator Also Promote Proper Tire Inflation to Save Oil

Huge kudos to Bill Sloat for digging up support by Sen. George Voinovich (R-Cleveland) and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. for a sensible point recently mentioned by Barack Obama, i.e., that simple steps like properly inflating tires can add up to large savings on oil consumption. Voinovich's comment is from an email sent out in July:

If every American took commonsense steps to conserve gasoline such as properly aligning and inflating tires, the country as a whole could lower its fuel consumption by nearly a million barrels a day.

In the comments to the post, Sloat quotes similar advice from Goodyear in 2006, when gas was cheaper ($2.91 per gallon), noting that "underinflated tires cost the U.S. more than 3.5 million gallons of gas a day."

The McCain campaign and its minions and surrogates are engaged in an orchestrated campaign of distortion and ridicule based on taking Obama's remark about tire inflation out of context, pretending that it represents Obama's entire energy plan (rather than being one tiny piece of the conservation portion of the plan), and treating it as ridiculous despite widespread acknowledgement of its validity. (As the Obama camapign haspointed out, Republican Governors Crist of Florida and Schwarzenegger of California have made similar statements). But that is classic Rove/Bush dirty politics. The kind that McCain has repeatedly promised not to employ.

UPDATE: Here is more from the Obama campaign response, quoted by The Carpetbagger yesterday:

Senator McCain and his Republican allies just can’t help themselves — given the choice between offering real solutions or engaging in more negative attacks, they choose the low road every time. The latest? Trying to raise money and distract voters by criticizing Senator Obama’s comments that keeping your tires properly inflated saves energy. As Senator McCain knows, Barack Obama has a comprehensive plan to provide real relief to Americans struggling with soaring prices and make the long-term investments we need to break our addiction to oil.

And while the McCain team may is busy amusing themselves, the fact is that the idea they’re attacking is supported by, among others, top McCain surrogate Joe Lieberman, conference call host Mike Rogers, Governors Charlie Crist and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Department of Energy, and NASCAR — all of whom have urged Americans to help save energy by minding tire pressure.

But hey, who ever let the facts — or supporters’ positions — get in the way of a political attack? Aboard the Low Road Express, that’s no problem at all.