Supply and Demand

Short update this week. I just finished mowing the lawn and I’m tired. I hate yard work. I need a Roomba that cuts grass. And pulls weeds. And trims trees. You get the picture.

Senator Obama embarked on his whirlwind tour this past weekend, making stops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and Jordan, and will visit England, France and Germany before returning home. The first, Middle East portion of the tour was designed to shore up his foreign policy credentials and reinforce his positions regarding the “war on terror.” Judging from the reaction to his meetings with military personnel and regional leaders, he at least has not hurt himself in the eyes of the public - and may have raised his stock a little. The European segment beginning tomorrow, is Obama’s attempt to try to begin to repair the image of the United States among our allies. Europe is enamored with Obama. Some German news agencies estimate that up to a quarter million people may turn out to hear him speak on Thursday. That is a stunning amount of people to show up to see a guy they’d never heard of two years ago. Now granted, David Hasselhoff is a megastar in Germany, so maybe that’s not as impressive as it sounds. But in 2008, if a quarter million Europeans show up to see an American not named Jerry Lewis, and they’re not throwing rocks and burning him in effigy, he might be doing something worthwhile.

Senator McCain confuses me. Of course, he seems to confuse himself all the time as well, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. He constantly refers to countries that don’t exist, mixes up mortal enemy ethnic groups, rewrites event timelines and jokes about blowing people up. I guess he calls it straight talk.

For months McCain attacked Obama for never having visited Iraq, literally counting the days since the Illinois senator had last visited the Middle East. Now that Obama and the accompanying media circus are on the ground in Iraq, the McCain campaign is complaining that the media is giving his opponent too much coverage. There are two possible reasons for this. Either McCain is genuinely surprised by the breadth and depth of the coverage of Obama’s tour, or his complaints are intended to simply to guilt-trip the media into stumbling over themselves to ensure they split airtime given to the candidates right down the middle. If the answer is the former, (which it isn’t), then McCain fails to understand the fundamental economic principle of scarcity. He makes overseas trips on a fairly regular basis. So, when he made his trip to Iraq earlier this year he received a collective yawn from news organizations. Ho hum, another McCain trip abroad. But Obama is the new kid on the block, and this is his first visit to the war zone. Of course that merits more intense coverage. If you wear jeans and a t-shirt to work everyday, throw on a jacket and tie tomorrow and see what everyone says. If the answer is the latter, (which it is), the McCain campaign may have already succeeded. For such a juggernaut, the media is hypersensitive to criticism. The most offensive thing one can do to a reporter is label him or her biased or unfair. So, to compensate for perceived deficiencies and head off potential criticism, the media is paying meticulous attention to every speech and gesture McCain makes, and every town hall meeting he appears at. Be careful what you wish for, right?

Over the past seven days, the price of oil has dropped more than $27. Over the past seven days, the price of gas in my neighborhood has declined less than 10 cents. Supply and demand my @$$. McCain credits President Bush’s absolutely meaningless (due to the fact that a congressional ban remains in place) repeal of the executive prohibition against off-shore drilling with lowering the price. I suppose there’s a reason he prefers discussions of national security to discussions about the economy.

Former Vice President Al Gore issued a challenge to the nation this week; provide 100% of the nation’s energy with renewable sources by 2020. Gore’s timeline is unrealistic at best, but it does raise an interesting point. If we put half as much energy into energy efficiency and developing renewable energy resources as we put into fighting with each other about how to do it, we would be considerably further along than we are at this point. Republican’s want to keep drilling and mining, environment be damned, and Democrats want to wake up tomorrow and find all the coal plants magically converted to windmills. Neither of those “solutions” are viable. There is no good reason that the wealthiest, most productive, most advanced nation on earth should still derive 80% of it’s energy from fossil fuels. But because we’ve ignored the problem for so long, there is going to have to be a transition period in which we will need to use fossil fuel as a bridge to a renewable energy future. We may need to drill for and mine additional resources, but those have to be thought of as temporary, stop-gap measures on the way to a renewable energy future, and our energy policy - when we finally choose to develop an energy policy - needs to reflect that.

Finally, on a lighter note, race car driver Danica Patrick got into a heated argument with another (female) driver during a race last Saturday. Again. What is it about race car drivers and childish behavior? Why do these people seem to be incapable of acting like civilized adult human beings? Why not just focus on driving fast and turning left instead of pushing and shoving, throwing towels and drop-kicking windshields? A word of advise to Ms. Patrick. More winning, less whining. Your total number of televised altercations should not exceed your total number of wins.