Whew! A big kerfuffle in the ’sphere today is over a comment that John McCain made, as pushed by Think Progress - McCain: I ‘Don’t See How It Matters’ That I Don’t Know The Price Of Gas, from the original story at the OC Register

WICKSOL: When was the last time you pumped your own gas and how much did it cost?

MCCAIN: Oh, I don’t remember. Now there’s Secret Service protection. But I’ve done it for many, many years. I don’t recall and frankly, I don’t see how it matters.

I’ve had hundreds and hundreds of town hall meetings, many as short a time ago as yesterday. I communicate with the people and they communicate with me very effectively.

And, of course, Think Progress, as well as many other lefties, such as the Huffington Post and Balloon Juice, and even some of those on the right (at least originally), bought in to the line of thinking that McCain is divorced from reality, and has no clue about the cost of gas. (See a ton of links at Memeorandum)

In fact, is it a question, which was coming not from the reporter, but one that was sent in by an OC Register reader. And, does it really matter? Sure, as James Joyner points out, he could have answered better, but, it is exactly the type of question that Obama rarely answers, says is a distraction, and is let off the hook on. Second, see that part about the Secret Service? That is because he was doing the interview over the phone after just getting off a plane, and was waiting for the USSS to get going. So, yup, he was in a bit of a hurry.

I’d like to ask how many people in a lot of states pump their own gas. Quite a few states do not allow you to. And, when was the last time you did it yourself? Me, a couple days ago, but, guess what? Can’t remember exactly which one.

But, there is also another pretty good reason for the answer, given later in the interview

I’ve been on the campaign trail for so long I don’t remember when I last filled up my own gas tank, but I certainly did for many, many, many years and I understand the difficulties and challenges that it poses for the people of California and my home state of Arizona.

Oops. Guess Think Progress forgot that one!

And, as Patterico points out

So, does John McCain know the cost of a gallon of gas in America? Yes, he does. Here’s a news story from June 18:

“The price of a gallon of gas in America stands at more than four dollars. Yesterday, a barrel of oil cost about 134 dollarsm” said McCain.

Again, that McCain quote is from June 18 — six days before the O.C. Register interview that Think Progress uses to claim McCain doesn’t know the price of gas.

He recommends you post the quote in bold at every blog who got it wrong.

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.

He also shows that he believes in the Nanny State as the be all end all of existence. For a speech he is to give in Las Vegas on energy

For decades, John McCain has been a part of this failure in Washington. Yes, he has gone further than some in his party in speaking out on climate change. And that is commendable. But time and time again, he has opposed investing in the alternative sources of energy that have helped fuel some of the very same projects and businesses he’s highlighting in this campaign. He’s voted against biofuels. Against solar power. Against wind power…

You mean the failure to stop Democrats and their extremist environmental lobbyists from blocking all meaningful attempts to allow more drilling in US territory, new refineries, new nuke plants? At least he has been there, Senator Neophyte. While you were out playing “community organizer,” Senator McCain was out there on the front lines.

Wind power and solar are nice, but only work in small areas. Hmm, and, isn’t it the Lion of the Senate who is the major force behind blocking the Cape Wind Project? I wonder who Teddy Kennedy has backed for President?

After all those years in Washington, John McCain still doesn’t get it. I commend him for his desire to accelerate the search for a battery that can power the cars of the future. I’ve been talking about this myself for the last few years. But I don’t think a $300 million prize is enough. When John F. Kennedy decided that we were going to put a man on the moon, he didn’t put a bounty out for some rocket scientist to win — he put the full resources of the United States government behind the project and called on the ingenuity and innovation of the American people. That’s the kind of effort we need to achieve energy independence in this country, and nothing less will do. But in this campaign, John McCain offering the same old gimmicks…

I guess this is where that word “Marxist” comes in to play. Obama does not believe in the power of the private industry, which does things better, faster, and more cost efficient then government. But, hey, let’s put tons of unnecessary money into a government boondoggle that takes decades longer to create something that is not that good.

But, don’t worry, Obama won’t tax Americans too much (cough) to pay for it, reducing what people have to spend on their own power needs in the here and now. You just have to trust the guy who has spent almost no time in government over the guy who has given a lifetime of service.

And, as much as the NY Times tries, they just cannot find a way to spin it too negatively

Mr. McCain, of Arizona, alienated some environmentalists last week during a speech in Houston when he dropped his opposition to allowing offshore drilling for oil; this week, in a swing through California, he spoke about trying to wean the nation from its dependence on oil. He called for improving the enforcement of fuel economy standards, building more cars that could run on alternative fuels, dropping the tariff on imports of sugar-based ethanol from Brazil and offering big tax credits for nonpolluting cars.

“I further propose we inspire the ingenuity and resolve of the American people,” Mr. McCain said, “by offering a $300 million prize for the development of a battery package that has the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars.”

He said the winner should deliver power at 30 percent of current costs. “That’s one dollar, one dollar, for every man, woman and child in the U.S. — a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency,” he said.

Now that is the kind of idea that can really pay off!

Meanwhile, Obama continues to run around pushing corn based ethanol, along with tax breaks and subisdies, which, while a good idea at the start, is not viable for the long term.

Yesterday, Ed Morrissey picked up a story by David Broder about Obama potential damaging his brand, and one paragraph stands out in light of a Washington Post story today. Ed writes

Broder wonders whether Obama has built sufficient trust with the American electorate to begin on this series of reversals.  Dick Morris last week referred to this as “political antibodies”, which candidates build up from a long period of public service.  Voters get to know them from years of action, and that gives politicians the ability to be flexible, especially as circumstances change.  For instance, most voters understand McCain’s shift on off-shore drilling, because circumstances have not just changed but have made life more difficult for Americans across the board.

In contrast, Obama has almost no public record at all — no legislative track record, no executive experience, no foreign-policy experience, and no military experience.  He has not built public trust, but has become popular through his promises of reform.  He claims the mantle of crusader, someone who will courageously attack Beltway business as usual and bring a new era of government excellence as a result.

All of which makes today’s Wash Post story all the funnier, as Obama tries to reintroduce himself to deflect away from who he really is, and who he portrayed himself as during the Democrat primaries

 In the opening weeks of the general-election campaign, Sen. Barack Obama has moved aggressively to shape his campaign and offered a clear road map for the kind of candidate he is likely to become in the months ahead: an ambitious gamer of the electoral map, a ruthless fundraiser and a scrupulous manager of his own biography in the face of persistent concerns about how he is perceived.

Obama’s early maneuvers suggest a clear understanding within the campaign of his strengths and weaknesses. He bought air time in 18 states, a sure sign that he hopes to expand Democrats’ traditional electoral map. He opted out of the public campaign-financing system — revealing his determination to press his financial advantage, even at the cost of handing his Republican opponent the opportunity to raise questions about the sincerity of his rhetoric on reform.

And with a first ad that delves into his biography, Obama acknowledged ongoing concerns among his advisers that voters do not know whether he shares the values and beliefs of ordinary Americans, a potentially critical vulnerability. The ad speaks to the reality that enough questions were raised about Obama through the long nomination battle that he needs to address them. The campaign’s concerns include both taking on misinformation — such as the persistent claim that he is Muslim when he is in fact a Christian — and framing a biography unlike that of any nominee in the modern era.

Followed up massive amounts of “the American People do not really know Obama!”, which means, of course, that the long primary allowed the middle ground voters to learn who he really is, and he is not someone who has their best interests at heart, not someone who shares their same values, and not someone who they will trust. Obama breaks his word. He speaks in platitudes and sweeping rhetoric, but has very little experience to back it up. He was on the wrong side of the Surge, and refuses to acknowledge the successes of The Surge. He wants direct talks with America’s enemies with no pre-conditions. He is the one playing the race card, and white middle America, a pretty big voter block, does not appreciate being called racists simply because they disagree with Obama’s soaring rhetoric of hope and change and change and hope.

They do not appreciate being called bitter because they love God and own guns. They do not appreciate the wife of Obama and her “first time I have been proud of my country” yammering. Middle American’s are proud people who do not want government running their lives. And, again, while they certainly do not trust politicians that much, they expect them to at least keep their word on the big issues, which, so far, Obama is not.

He can fake who he is all he wants, but, contrast that with John McCain. People know John McCain. He has a long record, some of which people like, some of which drives Conservatives nuts. But, you know where he stands. You know what he will do. He has the track record to say “ya know, that is not working. I am going to change my position so that the problem can be fixed.”

Interestingly, the more Obama tries to reintroduce himself to lie to middle America and middle ground Republicans, the more he will enrage his base.

I Guess The Dem Idea Of Hating Swiftboating Is Out The Window. In Liberal World, of course, Swiftboating means lying about a someone in politics, and now they are attempting to swiftboat McCain McCain’s Secret, Questionable Record

“At a meeting in his Pentagon office in early 1981, Secretary of the Navy John F. Lehman told Capt. John S. McCain III that he was about to attain his life ambition: becoming an admiral…. Mr. McCain declined the prospect of his first admiral’s star to make a run for Congress, saying that he could ‘do more good there,’ Mr. Lehman recalled.” So claimed the New York Times in a front-page article on May 29 this year.

This story is highly improbable for several reasons, not least of all because John McCain himself has always told a very different story about his stalled naval career.

Jeffrey Klein goes on to tell us why he thinks McCain’s record is BS, and that he was a subpar Navy employee, and even suggests collussion with the North Vietnamese so that he was not treated as harshly as other POW’s.

Some of the unreleased pages in McCain’s Navy file may not reflect well upon his qualifications for the presidency. From day one in the Navy, McCain screwed-up again and again, only to be forgiven because his father and grandfather were four-star admirals. McCain’s sense of entitlement to privileged treatment bears an eerie resemblance to George W. Bush’s.

McCain’s file should also include records and analytic reviews of McCain’s subsequent sub-par performances. Here are a few cited in two highly favorable biographies, both titled John McCain, one by Robert Timberg and the other by John Karaagac.

The genius of McCain’s mythmaking is his perceived humility amid perpetual defiance. Having been a rebel without cause, and often a rebel without consequences, McCain apparently was not surprised when his Vietnamese captors went relatively easy on him compared to his fellow POWs. The Vietnamese military secretly and frequently filmed the American POWs to learn their propensities. Col. Pham Van Hoa of the Vietnamese People’s Army Film Department was in charge of the filming. Asked recently for his dominant impression of McCain, the now-retired Van Hoa said that McCain “seemed superior to other prisoners.” How so? “Superior in attitude towards them.”

Then Jeffrey Klein calls for the full release of McCain’s Navy record

Regardless, McCain owes it to the country to release his complete naval records so that American voters can see his documented history and make an informed decision.

Interesting. Did Klein call for the full release of John Kerry’s records, you know, the ones that he still has not released? Will Klein call for the release of all of Senator Obama’s records? Oh, wait, Obama hasn’t done anything so far except make speeches.

McCainiac sees the same thing.