Conservation

John McCain takes a nine-car motorcade to buy himself a Starbucks cappuccino.

Bob Drogin and Maeve Reston of the LA Times do the piece the Obama camp was hoping for on McCain’s “houses” gaffe.

Buried in the story is this charming little vignette:

McCain, who huddled with advisors at his desert compound in Sedona, Ariz., said nothing in public. A nine-car motorcade took him to a nearby Starbucks early in the morning, where he ordered a large cappuccino. McCain otherwise avoided reporters.

It’s good to know that McCain is doing his bit to keep gasoline consumption &#8212 and therefore oil prices &#8212 high. The day a rich guy like McCain has to cut back by using only a four-car motorcade to buy his cappuchino, the terrorists will have won.

Being as they are part of the liberal media, Drogin and Reston fail to mention that even once that McCain was a POW. I suppose they’re respecting McCain’s reluctance to talk about that experience.

Or maybe reporters are getting a little bored with the McCain campaign using his stay at the Hanoi Hilton as a get-out-of-gaffe free card.

Get_Out_of_Gaffe_Free_sm.jpg

Footnote Calling factcheck.org. The WaPo says it was only a six-car motorcade, which makes McCain virtually carbon-neutral for the morning.

Update Michael Tomaskey notes that traveling to Starbucks with a nine-car motorcade seems a tad … presumptuous. Typical cappuccino conservative, I guess.

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com