How did this make the Washington Post?

Sen. John McCain pledged yesterday that he would make the federal government more environmentally friendly, while Sen. Barack Obama mocked his rival as crafting energy policies that merely pander to voters, in the latest skirmish over which presidential candidate is better prepared to tackle the nation’s energy and environmental problems.

If anyone would know about pandering it would be Mr. Hope and Change and Change and Hope.

In a speech in Santa Barbara, Calif., McCain (R-Ariz.) vowed to “put the purchasing power of the United States government on the side of green technology” by buying fuel-efficient vehicles for its civilian fleet of cars and trucks and by retrofitting federal office space. The pledge comes months after Obama (D-Ill.) outlined a more detailed and ambitious proposal on the subject, virtually ensuring that the next administration will take significant steps to lower the government’s output of energy and pollution.

So, let’s see: Obama has stated the same thing, yet, if McCain says it, it is pandering?

Greening the government is a good idea, and not just for the energy reductions and real environmental protections it affords. The government is out there preaching to the American People that the People need to change their whole lives, but government is offering to do little but change the light bulbs for themselves. Do as I say, not as I do. If they want people to follow, then government has to do what they are asking, and, in some cases mandating, the People to do.

And, who ya gonna trust? Someone with virtually no experience, or a guy who has tons of it?

“Every year, the federal government buys upwards of 60,000 cars and other vehicles, not including military or law enforcement vehicles,” McCain said as he campaigned with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a prominent GOP environmentalist. “From now on, we’re going to make those civilian vehicles flex-fuel capable, plug-in hybrid, or cars fueled by clean natural gas.”

Saying that the U.S. government ranks as “the single largest consumer of electricity in the world” because it holds sway over “3.3 billion square feet of federal office space” worldwide, McCain said he plans to reduce the government’s carbon footprint by updating its buildings and demanding better standards in new ones.

While I’m not buying the whole carbon footprint silliness, more fuel efficient vehicles leads to less real pollution. Plus the whole aforementioned “I’ll do as I say” stuff from the government.