Obama Strikes Back: 'It's Like These Guys Take Pride in Being Ignorant'

Posted by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report at 9:56 AM on August 6, 2008.

For nearly a week now, Republicans, including John McCain, his surrogates, and his aides, have been mocking the notion that routine auto maintenance can contribute to fuel efficiency. Yesterday, at an event in Ohio, Barack Obama mocked them back.

For those who can't watch clips online (and in the unlikely event you haven't seen the clip elsewhere), Obama told the Ohio audience:

[L]et me make a point about efficiency. Because my republican opponents they don't like to talk about efficiency.

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 all this/ Somebody said, 'Well, what can I do, what can individuals do?' So I told them something simple, I said, 'You know what, you could inflate your tires to the proper levels, and that if everybody in America inflated their tires to the proper levels, we would actually probably save more oil than all the oil that we get from John McCain from right below his feet there, whatever it is that he was going to, wherever he was going to drill.

So now the Republicans are going around -- this is the kind of things they do, I don't understand it -- they're going around, 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 are lying about what my energy plan is. But the other this they are making fun of a step that every expert says would absolutely reduce our oil consumption by 3 to 4%. 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 home work, 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.

There are competing schools of thought here, but I found this pitch-perfect. I've long believed Obama is at his best, and most compelling, when he's on the stump, without notes, simply highlighting the silliness of the attacks against him. It makes his detractors appear even smaller, while setting the record straight.

Yes, his choice of words -- most notably "lying" and "ignorant" -- are provocative. That's precisely the point.

Indeed, I think that's what makes remarks like these so effective -- Obama threads the rhetorical needle, skewering his rivals with aggressive language, but doing so in a lighter, almost comedic, tone.

Ezra's take on the remarks was spot-on:

Obama is never better than when he's backed against the wall on an issue where he believes he's right. This was true of negotiating with dictators. It was true on the gas tax holiday. And it's proving true on tire gauges. If I were on the Obama campaign, the themes laid out in this video wouldn't simply be my rejoinder to the GOP's tire gauge bullshit. They'd be my message for the next few months. Not only is there a cutting attack in here, but there's also a reply to McCain's charges that Obama lacks substance. After all, if McCain has so much substance, how come he doesn't actually know anything?

What better way to highlight John McCain's ignorance than to accurately describe the problem with contemporary Republican anti-intellectualism: "It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant."

Indeed, I'd add that the other important part of this is Obama insisting, "This is serious business." McCain has ceded the grown-up ground, acting like a petulant child (whining, lying, playing with toys, easily distracted by nonsense), so Obama is stepping in, positioning himself as the adult in the race.

"They need to do their home work" -- in other words, we're dealing with conservative children who clearly aren't prepared to govern.

More like this, please.

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Tagged as: obama, mccain, energy crisis, tire gauges, conservative attacks

Steve Benen is a freelance writer/researcher and creator of The Carpetbagger Report. In addition, he is the lead editor of Salon.com's Blog Report, and has been a contributor to Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, Crooks & Liars, The American Prospect, and the Guardian.