This is my first diary, so go easy on me.
So McCain screams that we need to drill! drill! drill! as his coffers overflow with Oil Company contributions, and he mocks Obama's answer to a question at a town hall to inflate our tires to the proper levels as his only solution to the energy crisis (for the low information voters out there, it's not. Obama's energy plan is actually pretty comprehensive. But I digress.)
Since Obama has shown pretty good judgment to this point, I decided to take him up on his suggestion, and I went right to the nearest gas station and checked my tire inflation. They needed a little air, so I put 50 cents into the air machine and inflated all four tires to the proper levels.
A little background here. I drive a lot for work, and with gas prices skyrocketing, early this year I started keeping a notebook in my car to figure out how many miles per gallon I was getting. It turns out that for in-city driving, my car is averaging about 22 MPG.
Well, I have just completed my first tank of gas on properly inflated tires, and my MPG for this tank was 24.5 MPG. I have a 14 gallon tank, so I got an extra 2.5 MPG with properly inflated tires. At today's price of a gallon of gas in Seattle (approx $4 per gallon), Candidate Obama just saved me about 1.5 gallons of gas on this tank, or $6. Since I fill my tank once a week, that's a $6 per week times approximately 20 weeks left in 2008, which I figure is about $120 for the rest of this year (less the 50 cents I spent on the air machine, of course).
Candidate Obama just saved me $120, and we didn't drill a hole or implement some ridiculous gas tax holiday.
With judgment like that as a candidate, I can hardly wait to see what he can do as president. Thank you, Senator!
By the way, I'm going to donate that $120 to the Obama campaign today. I urge others to check the pressure on your tires and donate the savings to get Obama elected.