McCain: I ‘Don’t See How It Matters’ That I Don’t Know The Price Of Gas

[marmar]

from ThinkProgress:



McCain: I ‘Don’t See How It Matters’ That I Don’t Know The Price Of Gas»

In a telephone interview with the Orange County Register earlier this week, John McCain acknowledged he was unaware of the price of gas. The OC Register’s Martin Wicksol reports:

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.

McCain’s cluelessness about gas prices is compounded by the fact that he is clueless about what to do about it. He is promoting a gas tax holiday for drivers because he claims to understand “Americans are hurting.” It will provide “a little psychological boost,” McCain said of his plan.

In reality, his gas tax holiday would be worth a mere 60 cents a day for Americans and would be a boon for oil companies and foreign oil-producing nations. It would drive up the deficit. Moreover, the proposal would rob $1.4 billion from “public transportation and severely restrict the industry’s ability to add and improve transit services for a growing number of Americans.”

It seems that gas prices is just one more issue that “is not something” McCain has “understood as well” he should.


http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/28/mccain-gas-prices-unaware/

[annabanana]

1. Is it possible that he is REALLY this clueless?

This is right up there with his.. "It's not important when the troops come home"

[nashville_brook]

55. perhaps, it's not that he's clueless so much as he just doesn't care.

[Kierkegaard]

2. Obviously, the price of gas wasn't communicated too effectively.

Either that, or he forgot already.

[Lex]

3. Actually it might not be all that important, IF IT WASN'T $4 a GALLON!

Sheesh.

That's why it's important: $4.00 a gallon for regular most places.

[kestrel91316]

26. Hell, good luck finding regular for under $4.50 in CA.

[Faygo Kid]

4. What an asshole. What a gift to Obama he is.

Of course, the mainstream media will cover for him, but this is like Bush I in 1992 trying to guess the price of bread.

John McCain is a total freaking asshole.

[Political Heretic]

59. He won't be the republican nominee.

[rox63]

5. Can the Democrats please plaster this McCain quote all over their ads?

Pretty please with sugar on top?

[corkhead]

12. there is so much low hanging fruit... why won't they use it?

[pitohui]

24. see answer #6

"another bush plain and simple"


it doesn't matter what we want or what he says, they're going to install this fuckwit and then use the excuse of "americans wouldn't vote for a black man" to put the blame the victim crap on us

democracy is dead, we need to make plans for the next stage

[Occulus]

35. They're following the advice of some of the same misguided folks we see posting here sometimes

People who say we have to "stay above the fray", "take the high road", and "never sink to their level" because "we're better than that".

I grew up being taught that complete bullshit, and I can state with utter, rock-solid, and immovable certainty that it's a recipe for getting stepped on every goddamn motherfucking time.

And you don't want to know how I really feel about it.

:grr: :grr: :grr:

[salin]

44. sure, and then the McCain folks will complain about media distortion

and magically the quote (like the 100 years in Iraq just to name one) will disappear. The press favoritism is astounding.

However, as more and more of these quotes get out - even if they are later disappeared - the public is still catching wind. McCain very possibly might be a political "Has-been" even before the votes are cast in November (as in making himself so irrelevant to the public).

[Sarah Ibarruri]

6. Another Bush, plain and simple. nt

[TheFarseer]

7. gas is $3.89 here

the gas tax is $0.18 or less than 5% of that cost. So you're going to give me less than 5% off my gas and I'm supposed to be happy about this? Hyvee will give me almost that much ($0.10) off if I buy $100 worth of groceries. They'll give me $0.20 off if I fill a prescription at their pharmacy - a little over 5%. Now BP sent me a coupon for $.05 off so combined with the McCain plan, I'll be saving $0.23, almost 6%. Ball's in your court, Hyvee!

[SalmonChantedEvening]

8. The Straight Talk Express has no windows?

Those gas signs are huge John. Big numbers! Look outside every now and again, and see what the rest of us are going through.

Not that it would matter.

[TheCowsCameHome]

17. Even the rose-colored glasses can't hide those big signs.

[me b zola]

62. Sounds like your next song...

"...I'v been everywhere
don't know the price of gas there
not that I really care
about the burden that you must bear..."


In case anyone could have extrapolated my thievery of Johnny Cash's tune, my apologies to Mr Cash.

[crickets]

67. But if he talks about them out loud

they might be real! (Just like us.) If he ignores them, they aren't really there.

Gee, that sounds familiar.

[BlueJazz]

9. Geez...When he's riding with the secret service, doesn't he ever look out the damn window??

:(

[Mind_your_head]

19. That's EXACTLY what I was thinking!

He doesn't have to pump his own gas to look at a gas station sign he travels past anywhere in the USA *sheesh* - McSame is another one "who lacks curiousity", just like the chimperor.

[Muttocracy]

51. and it's over $4 a couple blocks from the Capitol, if he ever showed up there. nt

[nashville_brook]

53. it's not HIS MONEY he's spending on gas, so what does it matter to him? choosing btwn gas and food,

isn't in his experience.

[dkf]

10. Cindy pays all the bills anyway...including the bill for the private jet.

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. Ya see, if you're rich the difference between $1.30/gal and $4.10/gal

is negligible.

In typical Republican fashion, if it doesn't affect 'ME' then it's not all that important.

[Canuckistanian]

36. He's never had to choose between a full tank of gas or food for the week

Not. Even. Close.

[Vanje]

13. Is McCain too busy sleeping....

....to look out of the fucking window?

Does his secret service squad make him wear a bag on his head ?

Does he go blindfolded out of nostalgia for his imprisonment by the VC?

Is he busy necking with a team of pretty blond lobbyists?



....and if he does car commute in some sort of a coma, dosnt he listen to the radio once in a while? or Maybe glance at the front page of a newspaper or magazine?

Does he watch news on TV?
Has Fox News mentioned the price of gas?

[treestar]

14. OMG! He is going to win it for us!

A new stupid thing comes out of his mouth every day! Not even inarticulately, as they do with *!

[TheCowsCameHome]

15. In the finest Bush tradition, he is absolutely out of touch.

How can people be so far removed from reality?

[CanonRay]

39. You obviously don't have millions and seven houses

THAT's how you get out of touch.

[kskiska]

64. He's also computer-illiterate

according to a story on CNN. He relies on Cindy and her Blackberry.

[MercutioATC]

16. This is 527 ad #1.

"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."

The Secret Service doesn't pump my gas. Do they pump yours?


Don't you want a President that, at least, knows what you pay for gas?


Something like that

[Bjorn Against]

18. And this guy claims he is not going senile?

I thought everyone in the nation would know that we had $4.00 gas, yet somehow a major Presidential candidate does not know that? This is probably the most talked about issue among average Americans right now, and McCain has no doubt heard it brought up thousands of times yet he seems to have forgotten. It is not ageist to say the obvious fact that this guy is clearly going senile.

[Occam Bandage]

20. Dude, is it too fucking hard to look out the fucking window?

[CanonRay]

40. He did look out the window

but it was at 30,000 feet! :rofl:

[gratuitous]

21. If you don't see how it matters, Mr. McCain

Don't expect me to enlighten you, you gargantuan twit.

[opihimoimoi]

22. He doesn't even realize the neg impact of what he just said....clueless and Arrogant...pitiful

[Mind_your_head]

68. "Clueless and arrogant" - yes

"pitiful" - no. He won't be getting any pity from 'me'.

He's "got his". So nows all 'we' have to do is "marry well" and then we too will "get ours".....see how simple it all is! (must I add the :sarcasm: thingy???? *sigh*)

There's an old saying about marrying for love or money. Very few people get to marry into both. Many people marry into "the love of money".....so, "rich" people can n e v e r really be sure about other people's motives.

Just sumthin' to chaw on fer a'while......particularly if you have a bit o' spare change ;-)

[pitohui]

23. george bush/john mccain doesn't care about white people :-)

they don't care about any people

what was your first clue?

[LiberalFighter]

25. If those that he communicates with communicate with him very effectively...

Then why doesn't he know? Or is it because those that communicate with him are also blind to the cost of gas? And he only communicates with a very select few.

[mrs_p]

27. maybe he is having troubles

with his eyesight and is too embarrassed to admit it? :shrug:

[Arctic Dave]

28. I would have posted sooner but

when I read his answer the stupid rendered me unconscious for about five minutes.

[BreweryYardRat]

29. Congrats, John. Your greed-bloated dumb ass just handed us a couple million votes.

This needs to be front-and-center in campaign ads.

[Enrique]

30. I don't drive, and I know the price of gas these days

I glance at the headlines once in a while, and talk to people. :shrug:

[vixengrl]

31. But it actually *doesn't* matter, proportionately.

A, say, $50 fill-up is a bigger expense, proportionately speaking, for a person making, say, a take-home salary of $600 a week than someone who...

You know, is a millionare married to a multi-millionaire who has a few houses. The idea of a budget in which groceries, utilities, rent (or mortgage) and other expenses must be carefully balanced to avoid massive debt is just not in his immediate experience.So what if he knows that gas is $4.19 at the pump around the corner, it's not the same at all as grasping what it costs.

[Octafish]

32. Last time he remembers pumping it was 25 cents per gallon.

He remembers when cigs were 25 cents a pack, too.

[pokerfan]

37. He remembers when oil was still walking around on four legs

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

33. Didn't George H.W. Bush have a problem with the price of milk in 1992?

In that election, he supposedly went to a supermarket to show that he wasn't an elite multimillionaire but a man of the people. He didn't even know that supermarket scanners existed and was completely uninformed about the price of milk.

John McCain probably doesn't know how to operate a modern gas pump, where to insert his credit card, and where to type in his zip code. If he ever had to pull up to a pump, he'd probably shout out the window at the non-existent attendant: "hey buddy, fill 'er up and check the oil".

[Poiuyt]

46. That really sunk Bush I

It showed how out of touch he was with the American people. This statement of McCain's could be used against him with great effect.

[whistle]

34. Right, the repukes must be proud of that statement, Shrub redux

[Vinca]

38. Can't remember the price of gas, can't remember the property taxes.

Some might think McBush is suffering from senile dementia.

[Oilwellian]

41. I would love to get the actual audio of this

If anyone finds it, let me know. :D

[WhiteTara]

42. and our roads will become bigger pot holes

to him, nothing matters. Not the price of gas, the length of the war...but he will veto every beer.

[MindPilot]

43. Translation:

"I do not know anything about one of THE most important issues facing the American people right now."

If the Democrats can't win with that, we deserve whatever we get.

On edit: I'll bet Obama could not only tell you the price he last paid for gas, but also which side his gas door is on.

[AngryOldDem]

45. That is a GREAT talking point for Obama and the Democrats.

In the space of about four weeks, I have spent more than $100 on gas. Not to mention more than that for the few groceries I buy, the prices of which are also tied to oil. Some, I'm sure, have spent a lot more on both.

For McCain to say unapologetically that he doesn't "see how it matters" just shows how much he doesn't give a damn about the average American -- and if he can't hear those at the town hall meetings who are most likely making the price of gas and the economy their No. 1 issue, then I respectfully submit that he needs to turn up his hearing aid.

Just how out of touch can a presidential candidate be, and not lose his credibility entirely?

[Vickers]

47. I wonder if he knows you can pay-at-the-pump?

:shrug:

[KG]

48. 'I don’t know and frankly, I don’t see how it matters. but that doesn't mean I'm an elitist. smirk'

sorry, Spiralhawk, couldn't help myself. :hi:

[Jack Rabbit]

49. This reminds me of Bush the Preppy's trip to the supermarket

. . . where he discovered bar code readers, which had been around for years, and marveled. He had never seen one before.

[tuckessee]

50. I doubt McCain is the only pol like this.

I bet many of them even have "D"'s after their name.

[windoe]

52. He doesn't know the price of gas

but more significantly-> that he doesn't see how that matters. McCain is another puppet, he is being run as a symbol, not as someone who will make decisions, that is so obvious.

[carlyhippy]

54. that was not his smartest response....a "it's too high, I do know that" and a

"I will do whatever I can to lower these prices" would have been a better response.

Carly

[demodonkey]

56. Let them eat cake...

:grr:

[bluesmail]

57. If asked directly what do you think is going on inside his head

My reply would be not much.:P

[yurbud]

58. like Papa Bush's grocery store moment

when he saw a grocery scanner for the first time during the 1992 campaign.

[Vanje]

60. McCain on the road with his Secret Service gas attendants

[Disturbed]

61. McLame is an arrogant Asshole just like his buddy Busholini.

[Initech]

63. McCain the elitist prick.

Really, how stupid do you have to be to realize that gas is $4.50 a gallon? And how much would you have to suck to get the secret service gas pumping job?

[Gabi Hayes]

65. this is how the wingnuts work....this ahole says thinkprogress is lying about McCain's quote.

http://patterico.com/2008/06/29/extra-stop-the-presses-think-progress-lies-about-mccain/

check it out. they IGNORE this part: "I don’t recall and frankly, I don’t see how it matters,"

as they say this, while trying to spin the above quote, and change the meaning of what McCain's own words clearly convey:

"Think Progess cites this as evidence of 'McCain’s cluelessness about gas prices.'

But McCain isn’t saying he doesn’t know the price of gas. He is saying that he doesn’t remember the last time he pumped his own gas, and how much it cost then."

they really think people are that stupid???

''here, he says this, but really means THIS! don't believe what he said. believe what we tell you he meant!''

this is how they brainwash the imbeciles that think Bush/McCain are good for the economy, good for the country.

[Gabi Hayes]

66. I just did a google general and news search, and I found this story NOWHERE but

huffingont post and other blogs

not ONE newspaper or TV outlet was listed on either google search

I used the entire quote, as well as some shorter versions, and came up with nothing

didn't check the huffpo site, but will now....