Who's Got an Energy Gimmick Now?

Ronald Bailey | August 5, 2008

Presumed Democratic Party presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama correctly derided his Republican rival Sen. John McCain for proposing a federal gasoline tax moratorium:

...we're arguing over a gimmick that would save you half a tank of gas over the course of the entire summer so that everyone in Washington can pat themselves on the back and say that they did something.

That was then: this is now.

Yesterday, the "we-are-the-ones-we've-been-waiting-for.-We-are-the-change-that-we-seek" candidate showed that he could be just as gimmicky as any other presidential aspirant. Obama proposed releasing 70 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as a way to drive down high gas prices. Conservative commentator Mark Impomeni does a few quick calculations and finds that Obama's gimmick would yield about two-fifths of a tank of gas per driver. The change-we-can-believe-in apparently believes that 40 percent of a tank of gas is less gimmicky than 50 percent.