This week the NM GOP is running a radio spot in rural New Mexico conflating comments by Obama back in April about small-town Americans being bitter with his more recent comments that keeping one’s car tires inflated, along with tune-ups, is a good way to conserve energy. Plus, he said, if everybody did it we could save as much oil as could be generated by increased drilling.



Here is the transcript of the ad, courtesy of Politico’s Jonathan Martin:

High gas prices. Pain at the pump. An energy economy in turmoil.

What’s Barack Obama’s energy solution? Nothing but a bunch of hot air…really.



Barack Obama wants you to inflate your car tires. Yes, that’s right. Inflate your tires. That’s Barack Obama’s solution to the high gas prices we pay in New Mexico every day.



Last week, Obama actually remarked, “We could save all the oil they’re talking about getting off drilling if everybody was just inflating their tires and getting regular tune-ups.”



This is the same Barack Obama who told a crowd of wealthy San Francisco liberals that people who live in small towns cling to their religion and guns because they’re bitter.



Now he opposes producing more oil and gas here at home and opposes lowering your gas tax this summer.



We understand the real problems we face. Don’t you wish Barack Obama understood us?



Barack Obama: a really inexperienced politician whose hot-air solutions are out of touch with New Mexico.



Notice that the ad says Obama’s solution to high gas prices is for “you” to inflate your tires. This suggests that is the sole energy proposal of Obama. But Obama actually has a multi-point and broad plan for solving our energy crisis, that is easy to find.



Here is the full Obama quote about inflating tires, provided by ABC’s Jack Tapper with information that puts it into context:

“There are things that you can do individually though to save energy,” Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, said. “Making sure your tires are properly inflated, simple thing, but we could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling, if everybody was just inflating their tires and getting regular tune-ups. You could actually save just as much.”




The ad also continues the attack over Obama’s comment back in April about why small-town, working class Americans might have difficulty embracing his candidacy. According to the Washington Post at the time:

The controversy stemmed from remarks Obama made at a private fundraiser in San Francisco on April 6 when he explained his struggles appealing to working-class voters by saying they were frustrated with the loss of jobs under both Republican and Democratic administrations over the last decade, adding: “It’s not surprising that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment.”

 

 

Obama attempted to clarify his meaning later, after it was used to attack him as elitist by Hillary Clinton and John McCain, not to mention political pundits:

 

“Lately, there has been a little, typical sort of political flare-up because I said something that everybody knows is true, which is that there are a whole bunch of folks in small towns in Pennsylvania, in towns right here in Indiana, in my home town in Illinois who are bitter,” Obama said in Muncie. “They are angry. They feel like they have been left behind. They feel like nobody is paying attention to what they’re going through.”

 

“So I said, ‘Well, you know, when you’re bitter you turn to what you can count on,’ ” he continued. “So people they vote about guns, or they take comfort from their faith and their family and their community. And they get mad about illegal immigrants who are coming over to this country or they get frustrated about, you know, how things are changing. That’s a natural response.”

 

One thing is probably true. While the two parties duke it out in the PR game, all Americans, rural and urban alike, are probably a little bitter at both sides about energy prices.