James Ridgeway of The Village Voice makes a glaring error in his column urging John Kerry to just be himself.
Ridgeway writes: “Or take the issue of energy independence. Both candidates say they want to make vehicles less polluting and more efficient. Yet, for decades, both parties have joined to beat down any serious attempt to gain fuel efficiency … And in this campaign? Same old, same old. There is little difference between the two candidates. Why? Both the energy industry and the automobile makers are prime contributors to political campaigns, and in this election both West Virginia and Michigan are battleground states.”
Now it’s true that John Kerry, wary of alienating Michigan’s auto workers, has not made increasing fuel economy standards a centerpiece of his plan for energy independence. But the fact is, in 2002, Kerry, along with John McCain, sponsored a bill that would have raised fuel economy standards to 36 miles per gallon — a significant increase. Kerry has never disavowed his strong support for that measure. The Bush administration, by contrast, has always strenuously opposed significantly raising the standards.
Advocates of improved fuel economy have long considered Kerry one of their greatest legislative champions. To them, past behavior is the best predictor of future performance, and they’re confident that the standards are far more likely to be raised if Kerry is elected.
Ridgeway may be right that, based solely on the campaign rhetoric we’ve heard from them so far, there’s little difference between the candidates on the issue. But look a little closer, and the difference couldn’t be clearer.
–Zachary Roth
