BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We have a montage of the Drive-By Media circling the wagons on this.
TAPPER: If engines were tuned up and tires fully inflated, it could save 800,000 new barrels a day.
FOREMAN: Would it produce the savings Obama is citing: three or four percent in overall oil consumption? The answer is…yes!
CRAWFORD: Truth is properly inflating your tires, uh, will do more for, uh, saving money on gas than anything the politicians are going to do right now!
MADISON: Everybody and their grandmother knows you inflate tires!
RUSH: This is surreal. This is unreal. Notice how the Drive-Bys… By the way, let me tell you who the Drive-Bys were there. Jake Tapper. (clears throat) Excuse me friends, I’m a little hoarse today. I was up late last night, very, very late last night working hard preparing today’s program. Let’s see. We had Jake Tapper, CNN’s Tom Foreman, Craig Crawford is the guy who said (impression), ‘The truth is properly inflating your tires do more to save money on gas than anything the politicians are going to do right now!’ How of you, ladies and gentlemen, are driving around on flat tires? I need a show of hands. How many of you are not inflating your tires. Do you understand how absurd this is? I know they’ve got a website that they’re citing. They got a website they’re citing that says all of this is true, the tire gauge business, inflating your tires. It’s absurd. For this ‘fact,’ as it is now being presented, to be true, we have to know how many Americans are driving around on flat tires or underinflated tires, and we can’t possibly know that.
Wouldn’t we assume, ladies and gentlemen, that most people are driving around with tires that are properly inflated? So Obama comes out and makes this ridiculous claim. Anybody who wants to buy into this — and the media especially, sycophants. These people going to die of anal poisoning, as I have suggested. Circling the wagons to try to make us believe that we don’t need to drill for any more oil, ’cause all we have to do is properly inflate our tires. You know what this reminds me of? Reminds me of one of the early days in the 1990s in the environmentalist wacko movement. They tried in Southern California to shut down backyard barbecuing between five and seven o’clock because the theory was that if everybody in Southern California (LA on down to San Diego) fired up their charcoal briquettes at six o’clock in the evening, the effect on the atmosphere would be disastrous and incalculable.
They actually had people believing this for a while, and they went around and said, ‘Yeah, I know you think you just need to get your little Weber back there and you throw your briquettes in there, throw in your Ronson Lighter Fuel, light it up, what possible damage? But imagine millions doing it at the same time.’ ‘Ooh, yeah, hadn’t thought about that.’ People actually bought into this for a while. Now, of course, that’s histoire because it was all BS. This oil debate, if you were listening yesterday, you know how absolutely incredulous I am about this. This whole business that oil has become the enemy — and I’ll tell you why. I asked yesterday, ‘How in the world can an entire political party, an ideological movement, develop a hatred for a commodity?’ It’s akin to hating soybeans. It’s akin to hating sugar or cotton. How can this happen?
Well, there is a key element in the hatred of oil, and that is the stupid, ignorant belief that it is contributing to the destruction of the planet. It is organic! Oil is a more natural substance than ethanol. Ethanol is not made by the earth. We have to mix various elements in order to create ethanol. It’s just moonshine. That’s all it is. It’s just high-octane corn liquor. Pretty soon they’re going to have to get your car sobriety test in addition to you, if you get caught weaving along. So this hatred for oil, aside from the environmental concerns, you know what else it is, folks? Do you know what else it is? They don’t control it. The left doesn’t control it. The left and the Democrat Party don’t control oil. Oil is the fuel of the engine of freedom, and they don’t like it, and they don’t control it. Anything they don’t control, any industry, they hate. Look at their enemies list: it’s every successful corporation or genre of business that you can imagine. It’s irrational. As so much of the left these days is, it is irrational. Now, this tire gauge business is a clear illustration of the agenda-driven nature of the Obama sycophants in the Drive-By Media. Play this montage again, Jake Tapper, Tom Foreman of CNN, Craig Crawford, and some talk show host.
TAPPER: If engines were tuned up and tires fully inflated, it could save 800,000 new barrels a day.
FOREMAN: Would it produce the savings Obama is citing: three or four percent in overall oil consumption? The answer is…yes!
CRAWFORD: Truth is properly inflating your tires, uh, will do more for, uh, saving money on gas than anything the politicians are going to do right now!
MADISON: Everybody and their grandmother knows you inflate tires!
RUSH: Exactly right. So who’s driving around on flat tires? Here’s The Messiah himself doubling down on his own gaffes because of his arrogance. This is in Berea, Ohio, yesterday at a town meeting.
OBAMA: If everybody in America inflated their tires to the proper level, we would actually probably save more oil than all the oil that we get from John McCain drilling right below his feet there, wherever it is that he was going to — wherever he was going to drill.
RUSH: Go ahead, Barack.
OBAMA: They’re making fun of a step that every expert says would absolutely reduce our oil consumption by three to four percent. (applause) It’s like — it’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant. You know? I mean, and they’re — they’re — and — and — and they think it’s funny that they’re making fun of somethin’ that is actually true! They need to do their homework, 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.
RUSH: Okay, so he’s double down here on his own gaffe, and he’s out there selling the idea. Isn’t it interesting that Tom Foreman of CNN used the same ‘three-or-four percent’ overall oil consumption figure that Obama used in the double down comment yesterday at the town meeting in Berea, Ohio? It is just breathtaking. It’s breathtaking. The debate for the presidency of the United States is now focused on tire gauges replacing the development of sources of energy. I think I’m going nuts.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s more on this tire gauge business. This is in Elkhart, Indiana. Obama is continuing to make fun of the whole notion of drilling for oil. I asked him yesterday to keep this up, keep laughing at the notion people want to take steps to lower gasoline prices and energy prices. You keep laughing at it, Obama, go ahead. The American people need to see you laughing at it and making fun of that concept, as often as possible. We’re gonna help. Here’s this little bite from this morning.
OBAMA: George Bush’s own Energy Department will tell you that you will not see a drop of oil from offshore drilling for seven years, seven years and that even when full production is going, 20 years from now, it would make just a marginal difference in terms of the price of gas. But, uh, nevertheless John McCain stood in a building somewhere, and he said we’re going to drill here and drill now, and I don’t know what he knew was below there.
RUSH: Sophistry, ladies and gentlemen, this is childish immaturity from the Democrat presidential nominee, The Messiah, Barack Obama. This is true childish immaturity, this kind of comment. And they keep reiterating this seven-to-ten-year business, and get what they’re saying. They’re saying you properly inflating your tires will save more oil than anything we’re going to drill for. An interesting timeline, by the way, to show you the sycophancy of the Drive-By Media. When Obama first made this comment, he said, ‘If we inflated our tires properly and got tune-ups, why, we would save more oil than we are going to get by any new drilling,’ which was just off the charts absurd. Later, it has been modified by Obama to be this three-to-four percent business. And the Drive-Bys are right in line with it, continuing to ignore what he originally said about this. They think they’re on a roll-over tire gauges. Well, once again it boils down to something very crucial. Conservation is great, and I’m not opposed to it. Neither is anybody else. Conservation doesn’t equal growth. Strip all this away and you still are left with a Democrat Party at war demonizing oil, demonizing energy, doing their best to make you hate it. They want people hating oil just as they want people to hate George W. Bush. One more Obama bite, and this is interesting, too, because I mentioned this at the beginning of the program, how McCain’s out there agreeing with Obama but only partly.
OBAMA: Last night after all that, Senator McCain actually said he agreed that keeping our tires inflated was a good idea. (laughter and applause) Which makes sense because it turns out NASCAR, which knows something about tires, apparently said the same thing, so did the triple-A. And so in the coming days, it’s going to be interesting to watch this debate between John McCain and John McCain.
RUSH: Now, I think McCain debates himself anyway already and has been doing so for quite a while. But, ladies and gentlemen, the AAA and NASCAR are not saying that properly inflated tires will replace drilling for oil. They are not saying that. Of course, you gotta have air in your tires. Gee whiz, this is so — I’m sorry, ladies and gentlemen, for appearing so hysterical about this. I’m trying to remain coherent, ’cause this just defies any reason whatsoever that we’re even having this debate, that people are actually debating the concept of tire gauges replacing drilling for oil. That’s what this boils down to. Now as to the McCain business. McCain did say — I have the quote. McCain said, (doing McCain impression) ‘Yes, yes, I agree, I agree with the AAA. We should all inflate our tires.’ And that’s what the Drive-Bys are reporting. The Drive-Bys are reporting that that’s what McCain said, we should all inflate our tires and, hey, McCain agrees with Obama. The rest of the quote, after McCain said, ‘Yeah, I don’t disagree with inflating tires. The AAA strongly recommends it. But I also don’t think that’s a way to become energy independent,’ said McCain. And they’re leaving that out. The Drive-Bys are leaving that out of his quote. So he doesn’t agree with Obama, thank God, on this. He agrees with him on too many other things.
His leading vice presidential candidate, Tim Pawlenty, the governor of Minnesota is out there praising Obama today. I don’t know about what. I just saw the graphic. Now, listen to this, though. Yesterday on Good Morning America, on ABC, the reporter, Jake Tapper, who was part of our montage earlier, circling — and I like Jake. I think Jake’s pretty good, but they’ve got this website, all the media guys have this website somewhere on which the Bush Energy Department purports to say that inflating tires will save all this — it may, but it doesn’t replace drilling for oil, which is Obama’s point, it doesn’t replace new sources of oil, period. And the idea that 800,000 new barrels of oil a day? Do you know how many barrels of oil we import a day? I looked it up. Do you know how many barrels of oil we import a day? About 10 million. Forty-nine percent of it comes from the western hemisphere, but that’s another discussion.
So we import 10 million barrels of oil. Properly inflated tires almost would reduce that to only 9 million a day? Is that what we are to believe here? The only way that could be is if people are driving around on flat tires, and nobody is driving around on flat tires. The assumption is that nobody is driving around on correctly inflated tires. This is just plain stupid, and the way these people circle the wagons and fall for this, and they are supposed to be journalists, I mean at least intelligent people. I know they’re in the tank for Obama, and I know that they want Obama to win and they think his candidacy is historic, but for crying out loud, I would not throw my reputation away, I would not dare do what they are doing with my own reputation. Anyway, Good Morning America, Jake Tapper interviewing Anne Mathias. She’s with the Stanford Group. And this is what Anne Mathias said.
MATHIAS: Unless everybody in the country is driving, you know, a 1969 Chevy Impala or something like that with the tires at half inflation, you’re not going to realize as much savings as he’s talking about.
RUSH: Precisely, Jake! And Jake Tapper was doing the interview with her. I like Jake. In fact, at one time — just to share a personal thought with you — I thought Jake should be considered to replace Tim Russert. But this is just mind-boggling because she’s exactly right. I don’t know what the Stanford Group is, and I don’t know who Anne Mathias is, but I’ll bet she knows who I am and what the EIB Network is, and we’re both on the same page here. If everybody is driving around on flat tires, friends, then this stuff matters. And the tune-up business, we dealt with that yesterday in great detail. Cars don’t get tune-ups since 1985.
San Bernardino, California, this is Dave. Great to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: How you doing today?
RUSH: Fine and dandy, sir.
CALLER: The overinflation of the tire thing, I’m a licensed mechanic for 25 years here in California. It’s an old trick the mechanic used to do to give the impression that you got better gas mileage, when they tuned-up your vehicle. You can check with the bureau of automotive repair, it’s an illegal procedure here.
RUSH: Wait, wait, I lost you. Are we talking tune-ups or tire inflation?
CALLER: Tire inflation. Now, the whole thing is saving barrels of oil, right?
RUSH: Yeah, but what you’re talking about, 25-year-old trick mechanics used to do. Start this again.
CALLER: Okay. During the smog check program, the old bar 90, let’s see, cars that come in with bad emission, the mechanic would sell him a tune-up, not perform it, overinflate the tires, so that the customer thought that he was getting better gas mileage.
RUSH: Okay, okay, got it, so they’d come in, ask for a tune-up. The mechanic would fake the tune-up and charge for it, right?
CALLER: Doesn’t save on —
RUSH: Well, no, but I’ve run into this so many times, I mean this mechanic tells you you need a tune-up, what are you going to do? Can’t go do it yourself. Most people can’t. Okay, yeah, fix it. At any rate, at any rate —
CALLER: But there’s a whole point to it. I’m just a little nervous being on the phone, but you could do some research on that, and it wouldn’t save a million barrels of oil a day or such.
RUSH: Of course not. So you would overinflate the tires so the customer would think he got a tune-up because his gas mileage would be better?
CALLER: Right, when in fact the car wasn’t fixed.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Just more emissions, we’re not saving any fuel.
RUSH: Yeah, yeah. This is getting even more absurd. Don’t be nervous out there, Dave. I appreciate the call. I didn’t hear a couple things you said in the first go-round. It was my fault, not yours. I am tempted, I am tempted to actually go out and overinflate my tires and deal with the dashboard warnings that I will get, and I want to see if my mileage increases from what I’m getting now, which is about seven and a half miles a gallon, to eight — I want to see. I know they say this, but I don’t believe it’s noticeable. I don’t believe you would actually notice it. How do you know that your tires are not losing, what about wind, if the wind’s in your way, you got a headwind, you got two forces against you then, you’ve got roadway tension, and you’ve got wind tension. I cannot believe this whole thing.
As to mechanics lying to you about your car… (laughing) Kansas City, making no money, 1979, old Pontiac Bonneville on its last legs, air-conditioner is not working, and then the engine just goes nuts. I’m out near the Kansas City Royals stadium at the time, Royals stadium, so I pull into this mechanic, this auto repair shop, the mechanic had a plastic Jesus on the cash register, I said, ‘This is the place for me.’ So I took it in there, and the guy looked at it and said, ‘You need a new disgronificator.’ I said, ‘I never heard of that, what do you mean?’ ‘Well, you can’t drive without it. You can leave here and you might get a couple, three miles but you’re going to be back here.’ ‘How much it cost?’ ‘Eight hundred bucks.’ Eight hundred bucks for a disgronificator. I didn’t have another car to use, I’m in a jam here. So I said, ‘Okay, go ahead and put it in.’ So we’ve all had our experiences here. Somebody tells you something is wrong with your car, you can’t fix it yourself, you just gotta get it done. And if it drives, maybe you’ll get a second opinion someplace.
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RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, look at me. Look at me. Don’t doubt me. We cannot inflate our way out of this. Don’t buy into this. You know what, folks? I think you have to be certifiably insane to be able to participate in this discussion. Look at what is happening here. We actually have the Democrat presidential candidate presenting to us a plan that could never be verified. We will never know if everybody is doing it: properly inflating their tires. It’s a pipe dream. Versus something we do know because we’re living it, and that is: drilling for oil leads to gasoline. We cannot inflate our way out of this, my friends. This is just insane. It’s literally insane, and I’m sounding so frustrated here ’cause I am not insane, and therefore discussing this is something I’m not used to. I don’t spend my time talking about stupid things very much. So I apologize for sounding so frustrated about this.
But there are some dangers. You can overinflate your tires and cause yourself real problems. I don’t know how many people — because Obama is saying and he’s a presidential candidate, he’s The Messiah — are going to start putting more air in their tires than they should. How many of these people are going to have blowouts? How many of these people are going to hydroplane through puddles of water and have accidents as a result — and there’s a host of other things bad that can happen when your tires are too full. NASCAR, by the way, doesn’t use air. They use nitrogen. Somebody needs to pass that on. Yeah, I think I’m right about this. They use nitrogen. It’s a little bit more constant. The pressure stays more constant; it leaks less. I’m not the fully aware of all the details and there are some people that put nitrogen in their cars instead of air. But be very careful about this, folks.
If you overinflate your tires you are reducing the ability of the tire to absorb road shocks. This can result in a much harsher ride. In fact, excessive overinflation may lead to impact fracture or other casing failures in the tire. I looked up this during the break. We’ve got a potential health problem looming here if people fall into this trap and start thinking that Obama is going to increase their gas mileage by 30% or whatever. If you overinflate, you’re going to cause wear-and-tear on the entire tire, which will result in premature removal of the tire, which means you gotta replace the tire, which means that Big Tire stands to profit from a number of people going out and overinflating. (sigh) Everybody knows, folks — everybody knows — that we need air in our tires. But apparently, Obama does not know that we need gasoline in our tanks, and putting air in our tires does not put gasoline in our tanks. We cannot inflate our way out of this.
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RUSH: Let me ask you a quick question, Mr. Snerdley, and the rest of you out there. Anybody have any idea what tires are made of? (interruption) Yeah, but where do we get rubber? What’s rubber? (interruption) Well, sometimes from trees. (interruption) Yes! Petroleum! Tires are made as a derivative in many instances of oil. So somebody needs to tell this little messiah that in order to have tires to inflate, we gotta drill for oil. I can’t believe I’m 57 talking about this stuff.