McCain Screws The Pooch

The McCain campaign released another ad today. It's viciously anti-Obama, as one might expect, but interestingly enough, nothing is said of McCain during the entire ad.

Narrator: He's the biggest celebrity in the world. Is he ready to lead?

With gas prices soaring, Barack Obama says "no offshore drilling," and says he'll raise taxes on electricity.

High taxes, more foreign oil. That's the real Barack Obama.

John McCain: I'm John McCain, and I approve this message

Notice how the ad focuses entirely on Obama; nothing is said of how McCain will deal with those issues (and there's reason for that, as you'll soon see). McCain is mentioned once: when he identifies himself, to let us know that he approves of this message. That's all. The message isn't "McCain is the best choice for America;" rather, it's, "Obama is a bad choice for America, so you might as well go with the other guy."

This ad uses similar tactics as his last ad against Obama. Let's address these claims once more.

With gas prices soaring, Barack Obama says "no offshore drilling"

I addressed this earlier, but the fact of the matter is that increasing offshore drilling would not have any effect on domestic gas prices until 2030, according to the EIA. Linking Obama's opposition to offshore drilling to rising gas prices is an intentionally misleading move on McCain's part (that, or he doesn't understand that offshore drilling takes as long as it does to bring down gas prices, which is equally worrying).

He says he'll raise taxes on electricity

It's unclear exactly what this is in reference to. It could be referring to Obama's plan for a cap-and-trade system, in which gas and oil companies must pay a tax for every ton of pollution that they emit in efforts to bring down pollution levels. This tax on the companies would likely be passed down to the consumer as well via the gas companies raising prices, and in that sense, could be seen as "raising taxes on electricity."

However, if this is indeed what McCain's talking about, then he's guilty of the same thing. In fact, McCain authored cap-and-trade legislation in 2003, alongside Senator Joe Lieberman. If this is what he's now criticizing Obama for, then McCain is guilty of outright hypocrisy once again.

FactCheck.org has brought to light some inaccuracies in McCain's recent attack ad. In it, McCain tackles the issue of offshore drilling:

Announcer: 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?

Chant: Obama, Obama

(image of Barack Obama is displayed on screen)

Announcer: One man knows we must now drill more in America and rescue our family budgets.

The implication here is that lifting the current moratorium on offshore drilling would lower gas prices, and those, like Obama, who've voted against offshore drilling are partially responsible for the recent spike in gas prices.

The problem is that none of this is true. The Energy Information Administration estimates that, were we to lift the moratorium on new offshore drilling, we wouldn't see an increase in the output of crude oil until 2030.

The projections in the OCS access case indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030. Leasing would begin no sooner than 2012, and production would not be expected to start before 2017.

So, the implication that Obama (or any senator who voted against offshore drilling) is to blame for high gas prices betrays a complete lack of understanding on McCain's part on how oil production works.

Furthermore, in a speech earlier this month, McCain contradicted the point his ad attempted to make:

"Let me give you a little bit of straight talk on energy. Our dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been thirty years in the making, and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington to think long term about the future of the country."

Obama, of course, was elected to his first term as a senator in 2004.