John McCain’s overworked and funny campaign staff are having a tough time to come up with new gimmicks assailing Barack Obama’s “keep your tires inflated” blip.

So they pass out tire inflation gauges inscribed “Obama’s Energy Plan,” drawing many “Oh, hah, hah’s” from Fox creed celebrants.

But $9,558,732,875,189 is not a laughing matter.

That’s the inflationary debt that McCain supporters should be attacking. They’ll need more than tire gauges to measure this country’s rapidly rocketing inflation. This is what eight years of mismanagement by the McCain Republicans has wrought. Now they laugh at anything that even hints of change.

He and his wife have no worries. There’s no wood pellet stove to buy or logs to split this winter. His equally ridiculous posturing on bent knee in a grocery store, shaking his head in apparent “alarm” at the rapid rise in food prices, rubs on the ludicrous. When was the last time he bought groceries? Or even his wife for that matter? Both are millionaires. His wife with an undisclosed income and a passenger jet chock full of high-priced aviation fuel with a full bar for a laughing, happy press – no extra charge for nuts or blankets – no wonder he and his staff are out of touch.

The Washington “Bubble” is about to pop. Improperly inflated tires waste gas. Unfortunately, McCain’s tire gauge isn’t calibrated high enough to measure the impact of an overinflated government.

Ken Buckley

Bangor