Lest y’all think I do nothing but hate on Obama, allow me the chance to give props where props are due:

At a town hall meeting in Berea, Ohio, [Tuesday], Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, pushed back against the GOP attack on his advice to a voter last week that having a tuned up car and fully inflated tires would help save energy.

“Let me make a point about efficiency, because my Republican opponents - they don’t like to talk about efficiency,” Obama said.

“You know the other day I was in a town hall meeting and I laid out my plans for investing $15 billion a year in energy efficient cars and a new electricity grid and somebody said, ‘well, what can I do? what can individuals do?’ Obama recalled.

“So I told them something simple,” Obama said. “I said, ‘You know what? You can inflate your tires to the proper levels…” […]

“So now the Republicans are going around - this is the kind of thing they do. I don’t understand it! They’re going around, they’re sending like little tire gauges, making fun of this idea as if this is ‘Barack Obama’s energy plan.’

“Now two points, 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 3 to 4 percent. It’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant.

“You know, they think it is funny that they are making fun of something that is actually true. They need to do their homework. Because this is serious business. Instead of running ads about Paris Hilton and Britney Spears they should go talk to some energy experts and actually make a difference.”

It’s also funny-yet-sad because McCain claims to support a comprehensive energy policy, i.e., one that includes conservation. You know, like keeping your tires properly inflated so you conserve gas and shit.

Obama touched on this point again today, and also took the opportunity to mock McCain for his undeserved “Maverick” moniker:

So, I know that Senator McCain likes to call himself a maverick, and the fact is there have been times where, in the past, he did show some independence, but the price he paid for his party’s nomination has been to reverse himself on position after position, and now he embraces the failed Bush policies of the last eight years, the politics that helped break Washington in the first place—and that doesn’t meet my definition of a maverick. You can’t be a maverick when politically it’s working for ya, and then not a maverick when it doesn’t work for ya and you’re seeking your party’s nomination.

By the way, while we’re on the subject of Senator McCain contradicting himself, a few days ago, somebody asked me what they could do personally to help America save energy. So I said something that some of you have heard, which is all of us could get better gas mileage, and save oil in the process, just by keeping our tires inflated. Turns out the experts agree. Turns out that we could save three to four percent on our total oil consumption just by keeping our cars tuned up and inflating our tires.

Senator McCain and the Republican National Committee, though, mocked the idea. They’ve been going around sending tire gauges to reporters saying ‘Barack Obama’s Energy Plan.’ Well, that sounded clever, except, last night, after all that, Senator McCain actually said he agreed that keeping our tires inflated was a good idea. [laughter and applause] Which makes sense—because it turns out, uh, NASCAR, which knows something about tires, apparently said the same thing. So did the Triple-A.

And so, in the coming days, it’s going to be interesting to watch this debate between John McCain and John McCain.

(Video and transcript via.)

Now if only he’d rethink that whole compromising on off-shore drilling thing…

* Someone watches The Colbert Report, eh?

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Tagged: 2008 elections barack obama energy republicans john mccain offshore drilling conservation