Get Your Facts Straight When Talking To The Press

This afternoon I was listening to POTUS 08 online and they were broadcasting the McCain
campaign press
call (basically a daily conference calls where senior staffers put out their talking points for the day and field
questions).  As an aside, these conference calls (both do them) are interesting because you here the talking points put out by the campaigns and then 6 to 24 hours later you read or see them in the press.  Sometimes they make it through and sometimes they don’t. 

Anyway, today the McCain camp was talking about how Obama was out of touch for suggesting Americans should properly inflate their tires and maintain their car.  They went so far as to say they were handing out tire gauges that had "Obama Energy Plan" printed on them to press and at some events (BTW, where do you buy custom printed tire guages over the weekend?).  Davis went on to tout the benefits of offshore drilling as a "real" solution.

Well, it looks like this one backfired somewhere between the conference call and the story.  This article in Time Magazine lays out how, in fact, if Americans did as Obama suggested we’d save more than we’d produce from drilling off share.  Studies show that proper tire inflation saves about 3% on average (or about 10 cents per gallon)..and it’d be immediate instead of 5-10 years!  The moral of the story here (as in business) is to make sure you get your facts straight before going out in front of the lights!