John McCain

We need to be freed from gas, not the gas tax

John McCain’s proposal to institute a gas tax “holiday” during the summer driving season is as clear an example of a pander as one is likely to see during election season, but its inclusion in a major economic policy speech suggests that this is no easily ignorable one-off. As Joseph Romm notes, any hope progressives […]

McCain’s gas tax holiday from reality

John McCain has a brilliant, original idea: Let's encourage Americans to drive more by lifting the gas tax for a summer "holiday."

Presumably it's the same principle as the "surge" in Iraq: so many soldiers are getting killed, let's send even more!

Here are some guaranteed effects from McCain's brainstorm. It would:

• Deepen the federal deficit, thereby weakening the dollar.
• Increase gasoline consumption, in one stroke worsening highway gridlock, compounding U.S. oil dependence, and speeding up global warming.
• Transfer what used to be tax revenue -- potentially usable for public benefit -- to the oil companies and the Saudis by pushing up oil demand.

Terrific, eh? McCain could drive to a gas station, perhaps in a jumpsuit with a padded crotch, stand surrounded by Uzi-toting Blackwater thugs while a parade of Hummers top off their tanks, and proclaim Surge II a success.

McCain reveals cynicism, hypocrisy with call for summer gas-tax holiday, energy budget freeze

Any remaining glimmer of hope that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) might be the principled, non-cynical politician to transform our energy policy and avoid the dual calamities of peak oil and climate catastrophe died today. The Associated Press reported that:

John McCain called Tuesday for the federal government to free people from paying gasoline taxes this summer ... aimed at stemming the public's pain now from the troubled economy.

...

To help people weather the downturn immediately, McCain urged Congress to institute a "gas-tax holiday" by suspending the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and 24.4 cent diesel tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

...

Among other proposals, McCain said he would ... Suspend for one year all increases in discretionary spending for agencies other than those that cover the military and veterans ...

Sad. In fact, doubly sad.

FOE to McCain: stop pushing for pork for corporate polluters

Friends of the Earth has started a new campaign against John McCain, asking him to “stop pushing pork for corporate polluters” — i.e., to stop supporting Lieberman-Warner and stop pushing for nuke subsidies to be added to it. Here’s the ad, which is running nationally:

McCain is closer to Bush than to the Democrats

Originally posted at the Think Progress Wonk Room.

Newsweek's cover story on the presidential candidates and global warming quotes UC Berkeley energy professor Dan Kammen, a supporter of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)'s presidential campaign:

It's unusual to have a Republican candidate who openly disagrees with the Bush administration on the need for capping carbon emissions. There's more disagreement with the current administration than with each other.

The idea that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is closer to the Democratic candidates running for president than he is to the president is popular with the political elite. Joe Klein similarly said "McCain's distance from George W. Bush seems greater than from the Democrats" on foreign policy issues like global warming. What McCain says he wants to do about global warming certainly sounds better than what the Bush administration has accomplished.

A look at the facts paints a different picture:

McCain and perception

Jerry Adler has a rundown on climate change in this year’s presidential campaign. Somewhat miraculously for a mainstream publication like Newsweek, it’s pretty good. This is a good point: So, ironically, McCain — with a voting record that would put him at the bottom of the heap among Democrats — is sometimes perceived as more […]

At least, according to South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.):

"Climate change is the road less traveled but he's traveled it even more than Al Gore," Graham said. "Al Gore has talked about it and deserves great recognition but he was around here a long time and never introduced a bill."

Let's see: McCain got 43 votes the first time he pushed his bill with Lieberman. He added some nuclear subsidies for the second go-round and got 38 votes. I'm not sure he can lay claim to great achievements.

The key point for me is that unlike Gore -- and unlike Clinton and Obama -- McCain doesn't support the policies needed to successfully address catastrophic climate change without devastating the economy (and without an absurd over-reliance on nuclear power):

• McCain "might take [new CAFE standards] off the books"
• McCain's crooked talk on nuclear power
• Even more doubletalk on mandates from John McCain
• Why John McCain isn't the candidate to stop global warming
• McCain's doubletalk express on global warming

Heck, McCain ramped down his talk about climate recently, even as Gore ramps up his communications effort. For the full statement by Graham, and a full rebuttal, see ThinkProgress, which has a great post that I'll just reprint below [unindented]:

New campaign plans to relocate polar bears to Antarctica

[UPDATE: This post is a joke, as is the Polar Bear Conservancy website. Happy April Fools’ Day!] While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dawdles over whether or not to list the polar bear as a federally protected endangered species, a nonprofit group is ready to act to save the fast-disappearing mammal. The Polar Bear […]

Notable quotable(s)

“I am convinced that if we work at it, we will be able to convince India and China that it is in their interest to be part of a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” — John McCain, March 2008 “One of the things I would do if I were President would be to […]