Gauging tires, blood pressure, the economy and war - The Tire Gauge Gaffe

[garthranzz]

From CrooksandLiars.com"

“McCain supporters in Michigan will distribute tire gauges at Obama’s energy speech in Lansing. The RNC will also deliver gauges reading ‘Obama’s energy plan’ to Washington newsrooms.”

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty" "Barack Obama stood up at a speech recently and said that one of the things that is really important from energy policy from his standpoint is to check the pressure in our tires, so here’s a tire gauge and you can go out in the parking lot here and check your tires. Now, that’s an interesting thing — we want you to have good pressure in your tires, you know, it will very mildly add to your fuel efficiency — but checking the air pressure in your tires is not an energy policy for the United States of America."

My response, which the Obama campaign is free to use any way it likes:

Minnesota Governor Pawlenty has said that McCain and the Republicans also want you to have good pressure in your tires, but checking air pressure in tires is not an energy policy. Well, they're right, of course. It's not. But I want to thank them for finally recognizing that paying attention to details - little details, like the difference between Afghanistan and Iraq, for instance - matter.
But as long as we're on the subject of gauges and pressures, I'd like to talk to you about pressure. While a little high pressure may be good for your tires, high pressure in your blood - that's not good, it's not healthy. You know what gives Americans high blood pressure? Ill-conceived economic policies that hurt hard working Americans and benefit oil companies - friends of Bush and McCain. High blood pressure can lead to a stroke, to paralysis. You know what has paralyzed America? An ill-conceived and illegal war, wasting billions of dollars and and thousands of lives. On the other side, if there's too little pressure in the tires, the car won't go. If there's too little confidence in the government, in the economy, in America itself, our country will stagnate, culturally and economically. Maybe George Bush and John McCain need their own gauge - not just a tire gauge - but a moral compass. Because almost everything George Bush and John McCain have done over the last eight years has been measured wrong. They don't have the judgment to gauge our enemies or read the pulse of the economy, So before that bus goes on the road, yes, Gov. Pawlenty, maybe you and Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain should use that tire gauge. Just make sure that at least you know how to read that one, because you can't read any others.

[hedgehog]

1. I listened to Obama's Town Hal lin Youngstown today.

He had the audacity to suggest that if cities and states planned development and road building better, we might not spend so much time stuck in traffic maneuvering around sprawl!

[Stand and Fight]

3. How dare he?

:sarcasm:

[Stand and Fight]

2. Nonsense...

Your average voter will remember this tire gauge gimmick a lot longer and sooner than that long wind-bag of a response. Democrats -- we've got to start to play it hard, fast and tough. Just like them. Enough of this pussy-footing around. They want war? Give it to them or we stand to lose. When people go to their polling places on election day they'll remember that damn stupid tire gauge a hell of a lot longer than any long-winded retort.

[MGKrebs]

7. Obama could hand out tire pressure gauges too.

Print on it:

"I'll get the government to do it's part, here's how you do yours."

[hedgehog]

8. I don't think the Republicans are "handing out" gages.

They're charging $25 for something you can pick up for $5 at the auto parts store!

[Mira]

4. Kicked ! This is too well thought out to drop like a rock. May I use it, too?

[garthranzz]

5. Yes, use any part of it.

The idea is to come back with sound-bites of our own.

To the one thought this was "windbag" - You can give a paragraph in a speech to an audience, and then use a sentence from it as a sound-bite.

For instance:
Bush and McCain are giving out a tire gauge. They should be asking for a moral compass.

George Bush and John McCain don't need a tire gauge, they need to gauge our enemies.

George Bush and John McCain can give out a tire gauge, but they can't engage our real enemies.

Maybe if Bush and McCain had used the right gauge and kept the pressure up, they'd have caught Bin Laden by now.

[Mira]

6. Thanks - I put it into my "Ammo" file -which I consult and use when I get crappy emails

[Stand and Fight]

9. Now that's more like it! Good on you!

People will remember those things! We've got to consider the average voter -- they tend to suffer from a somewhat limited attention span from time-to-time.