A Tank Full of Nonsense

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The normally staid FactCheck.org has posted an unusually blunt critique of the latest campaign ad for John McCain, which attempts to blame Barack Obama for rising prices at the gas pump and claims that offshore drilling will "rescue our family budgets." Using McCain's own words and voting record, FactCheck's Viveca Novak disproves every point in the ad, pointing out that by the federal government's own estimate, "if the moratorium on offshore drilling were lifted today, it would be 2030 before we'd see a noticeable effect on supply and prices." Moreover, she writes, "The notion that Obama is singlehandedly, or to any significant degree, or more than most other senators, to blame for the high cost of gas is absurd in too many ways to count here. ... Obama has been in the Senate only since 2005. McCain himself said earlier this month that the problem has been decades in the making."