WTF?!??! McCain ad blames Obama for rising gas prices
By Wendy
@jerzgirl (9234)
United States
July 22, 2008 11:09am CST
(Mon, Jul/21/2008) The Associated Press
[i]WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate John McCain is launching a new television ad that blames Democratic rival Barack Obama for rising gasoline prices.
The ad, airing on national cable and in 11 battleground states, argues that the cost of fuel is rising because of opposition to oil drilling in the United States.
The announcer in the ad says, "Gas prices, $4, $5, no end in sight, because some in Washington are still saying no to drilling in America. No to independence from foreign oil. Who can you thank for rising prices at the pump?"A photograph of Obama appears on the stage as a voiceover of a crowd chants: "Obama, Obama, Obama!"[/i]
Article's URL:
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/32-07212008-1565942.html
So, Barack Obama has developed super human powers now? Able to pass legislation with a single vote? More powerful than a Bush veto?
Tell me - is this really what we want? Drilling offshore with the potential to ruin thousands of miles of shoreline in a single industrial accident? It's bad enough medical waste (including used syringes) come ashore on New Jersey's beaches because of NYC's trash barges, but we're now finding WWII ordnance shells still capable of exploding! Do we or anyone else really want to risk wildlife and human life, not to mention tourism dollars, with the horrors of an oil spill? To read about an example of those dangers, see the following link and then imagine how each of these places would be afterwards - Outer Banks, South Beach, Galveston, Atlantic City, Sea Isle City, Ocean City, Cape May, Grant's Beach, Coney Island, Bahamas, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, et al. We only have one world in which to live - should we not find the best way to live here for as long as possible?
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE7D7103FF93BA35752C0A96F948260
2 people like this
10 responses
@jerzgirl (9234)
• United States
23 Jul 08
You mean someone who looks like the Hamburglar? I can visualize that more at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave than I can in Obama.
Check out one of my other comments - found some very interesting information tonight while digging.
And, thanks for contributing - even that wacky visual!!! 
1 person likes this
@ZephyrSun (7381)
• United States
23 Jul 08
Well the best thing to do when you're sinking is to grasp. Gas prices pull American's heart strings, as well as food prices and these day they go hand in hand. Scare tactics are always best when a party is failing or looking foolish.
2 people like this
@ZephyrSun (7381)
• United States
23 Jul 08
LOL Yes they do! I say all the time, American's have short term memory problems.
3 people like this
@tigertang (1749)
• Singapore
22 Jul 08
Oh dear, this is politics at its worst. I was kind of hopping that there may be a thing or two that would be different about this election but it looks like the characters involved are starting to act like politicians usually do.
Senator Obama is by no means a perfect candidate despite his impressive performance in this campaign. Like other politicians the man has his faults. However, most people who think about things logically will realise that the man does not have power to make the price of gas rise the way it has been.
However, elections are not known as times when people always think logically and I think Senator McCain, if this article is correct, is trying an old trick of repeating something often enough until it is true. This technique may well work. If he repeats enough, people may well believe it. Is it always clean to do this? No. But is it a fair technique to use in an election campaign, the answer is yes.
Personally, I think Senator McCain has been one of the more honourable politicians in the USA. However, this is probably his last shot at the Presidency and he's going to do what it takes to get into office.
@jerzgirl (9234)
• United States
23 Jul 08
I concur. The man has a level of class and dignity I haven't seen since I was a child! But, there is not one single perfect human speciman on the face of this earth. So, we observe, study, and make the wisest choices we can.
I've dug for a bit more information on a few things and it is in one of my responses lower on this page. I think you'll find it interesting.
2 people like this
@wisconsin26 (3859)
• United States
23 Jul 08
The truth of all of this is they are going to blame whom ever they can to get a certain person in for president and as you can see they are blaming Obama so that Hillary can get in for president and just make things worse for us.. I will admit I am not following all of this because the truth is the best person for president will get it if people vote right.. It sickens me to the bone though that the gas prices are as high as they are, reason being is that people that do work can't even afford to go to work mainly if they are working in another town... Does Bush care, no he don't as long as he can get what he wants... Sorry but this whole bush thing gets me..
2 people like this
@anawar (2404)
• United States
22 Jul 08
jerzgirl- Thanks for all the links you posted in here. Facts like these need to become mainstream.
The political mud-slinging is just that. McCain doesn't have much of a campaign to run on and he resorts to casting blame on Obama to undermine our confidence. Casting blame is about as low as it gets. and very childish!
Even Mr. Bush acknowledges that offshore drilling will have no effect on gas prices for at least two years. Drilling in pristine areas of the United States is only one more example of humans raping the planet for our needs.
I wish we would concentrate on better solutions, such as mass transit, or consider other fuel alternatives.
Mr. Bush overlooks the facts about growing corn for fuel. It's not efficient.Now people are starving because of his policy.
If Americans would research outside the diluted news we read and hear, more and more lies will be exposed and maybe we'll have a shot at saving our planet.
2 people like this
@jerzgirl (9234)
• United States
23 Jul 08
The funny thing is, the Republican-controlled Senate PASSED an offshore drilling bill in 2006 - yet they're blaming Obama for there being no drilling!!!!! Now, someone recently accused me of having a double-standard. Maybe they can explain that one to me with some semblance of rationale. 
@jerzgirl (9234)
• United States
23 Jul 08
One of the problems, as I understand it, in growing corn for ethanol is that it forces the food price of corn up because so much of it is being channeled into ethanol production (I think I have that right). Take a look at Brazil's sugar-cane based ethanol program. Sugar-cane is a grass (kind of like bamboo - it even looks like it in many ways), so it's fast growing. They seem to have so much that they have reserves (again, if I'm reading the articles right). I think, since we supposedly signed an agreement with them on the ethanol issue (I am not sure I understood if we were buying the ethanol or agreeing to work with them to develop it), why don't we use the sugar cane, too. We have territories that are the right climate for sugar-cane growth - in fact, I believe a lot of it is used for rum. So, why not increase the crops and use Brazil's process and bring more ethanol on board?
@boerema (60)
•
23 Jul 08
McCain is just another uneducated puppet like our current Puppet president (Cheney the puppetmaster!). The rising gas prices have NOTHING to do with opposition to drilling more oil but instead have to do with the inflation we are facing from the falling value of the dollar
When the federal reserve drops rates a certain ammount they do this by printing money and buying bonds with that printed money. This adds more money into the economy which further drops the value of our dollar (Supply and Demand -- when there is more supply of money there is less of a demand for loans which is why the rates drop). With falling dollar values companies have to raise their prices to compensate for the less valuable dollar. THAT is what is raising gas prices, not the availability of drilling offshores.
I also read an article that said that drilling offshore will not affect any gas price reductions for around 20 years or so.
And Obama is not much better either. He doesnt have a plan to fix the gas prices other than "I'm going to change it" (Which seems to be his response on any issues except torture and the Afghanistan war which he now both supports)
What we need to do is let the Free market allow for gas/alternative fuel friendly cars. Its almost impossible right now for alternative fuels to be introduced when Gas companies are paid billions of dollars in tax payer money in government subsidies. The Government is creating a monopoly out of the gas companies. They need to get their hands out of the market and allow companies to make fuel efficient cars. Also another huge step would be by legalizing hemp which has 4x more biomass than ethanol and can be easily broken down into a bio-fuel
2 people like this
@jerzgirl (9234)
• United States
2 Aug 08
Precisely - McCain accuses Obama of flip-flopping even as he himself is supporting things he opposed only 4 years ago - against Bush. Now they're best buds. If we screw up this election this time around, we may not have another chance - that's how I feel.
@rodney850 (2145)
• United States
22 Jul 08
Jerzgirl,
I hate to burst your bubble but America just can't have it both ways! We can either continue to be strangled by foreign oil magnates who control the supply and therefore control the price (ie, $4, $5, $6 dollars a gallon for gas)or we can do what is necessary to insure we have our own supply several years down the line! Oh, there is one other solution, it involves the horse and buggy, get my drift?
Oil spills don't happen as often as they used to and also our technology for containment and clean-up are far more advanced than 20 years ago! Why not drill the continental shelf on a limited basis? The main reason congress has given to date is we wouldn't see the oil for about five years or so and they said that OVER five years ago! If we HAD drilled then we might still have problems with the economy but they wouldn't be $4 dollars a gallon for gas! You are never going to convince me that there is ANY more danger of a spill drilling offshore ANYWHERE given the number of oil rigs already in the gulf and the very few incidences of spills! Most spills I've seen come in the transporting stage and guess what? That is already happening with huge super tankers hauling millions of barrels of oil to ALL of America's ports everyday! To say there is considerable more danger in the drilling and pumping process is ludicrous!
1 person likes this
@jerzgirl (9234)
• United States
23 Jul 08
Can you explain to me how, if the Republican controlled Senate PASSED a Gulf of Mexico off-shore drilling bill back in 2006, Obama is today being blamed for high gas prices? Also, check another of my responses where McCain says drilling would only provide psychological benefit and would take many years to have an effect on prices. I believe he was one of the Senators who PASSED that previous bill. Are prices lower yet? I think they've gone up, haven't they?
@redkathy (3374)
• United States
31 Jul 08
All I can say jerzgirl is don't believe everything you read and hear! Politicians will be politicians and the media almost never presents news as facts anymore. They write as journalists these days, not as reporters giving us the facts about todays news.
@darling_1 (18)
• China
23 Jul 08
Yeah,in our county the oil price has risen by one thousand yuan per ton.yes,now natural materials of the world has decreased day after day.Every country is making a economic sheme for natural resouces.
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