Presidential Transportation

Originally Posted on January 25, 2008 Last Updated on January 30, 2008

Enviroblog is one of my favorite RSS feeds for all things green. It has a manageable amount of posts to sift through (unlike those other brands) and a healthy dose of liberal treesucking. In a post today, where they claim that 98% of Americans want to phase out fossil fuels and 4 out of 5 of us want climate action now, they list what vehicles the folks running for their party’s nominations drive. I’ll reproduce the list here for those of you afraid of hyperlinks.

The Republicans

Mike Huckabee drives a Chevrolet Silverado truck while his familyâ€™s main car is a 2007 Chevy Tahoe. Just FYI, those two SUVâ€™s are also the biggest SUVâ€™s on the planet.
John McCainâ€™s wife drives a Lexus while his daughter owns a Prius hybrid. He drives a Cadillac.
Mitt Romney drives Ford Mustang convertible and a big Chevy pickup, while his wife drives a Cadillac crossover vehicle.
Ron Paul drives a Buick in DC, a secondhand Lincoln and Ford truck in Texas.
Rudy Giuliani does not own a car.

The Democrats

Barack Obama owns a 340 HP Chrysler 300C. However, when his choice was made known to the public, he bought a more PC hybrid.
John Edwards drives a hybrid as well, but he was apparently caught driving a bigger SUV a while ago. He also own Chrysler Pacifica.
Hillary Clinton drives a fashionable Mercury Mariner hybrid, which by the way does not score all that well on mileage counts.

I don’t know what these revelations reveal, but I can say this: You don’t change your boots when they’re in the mud, you put on the golaches on before you go catching skippers.

Up Next: The End of Protests on the National Mall?

Discussion

Jake 26 Jan 2008

Great list. It’s about what I expected. I commented on the original post, adding information about my long-shot candidate of choice, Mike Gravel.

Here’s an interview where he talks about his environmental ideas and also his choice for transport.

For a more local bent on the issue, check out the third letter to the editor here, as well as the story that inspired it. The resulting firestorm of pro- and anti-SUV letters that were published in subsequent days remain a point of pride in my letter-writing escapades.

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Jake 26 Jan 2008

Scratch that last link in the story. It should point here.

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nathan 28 Jan 2008

I’m not sure I follow your link strategy there, Jake, but the article about car leases interests me.

I am a strong advocate of elected officials salaries commensurate with their constituents. If you’re a member of the Pennsylvania House and you represent, say Northern Cambria County, your pay should be the average income of the people living there. Not the high or low end, the exact median, that way you are presented with the same economic situations as your own people.

Only then would “perks” be granted at the same level that a business pays for expenses. So, if you had a flight to Harrisburg to discuss business, the gov’t pays for it. If you have a weekend flight to the Poconos to hang out with lobbyists, you pay for it.

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