FatedGolem, a person can be an elitist and a liberal. An elitist believes that he knows what is better for people than they know or can understand themselves. An elitist believes he is smarter than the ones he wants to rule, that he knows what is best for them even if they don't agree with him. An elitist argues they are just too dumb to figure it out for themselves, which is why Obama's "cling to their guns and their religion" comments tagged him as an elitist, and his explanation that they don't know any better than to vote against their own best interests only made it worse.
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Both candidates voted for higher Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards last year, approving an energy bill that was signed into law in December. Previously, CAFE standards for passenger cars hadn't been raised since 1985. The new law calls for an average standard of 35 miles per gallon by 2020.
Both candidates are proposing even higher requirements than that, but Clinton is aiming slightly higher than Obama. He calls for doubling the current CAFE standard averages for passenger cars and light trucks to 49 miles per gallon by 2030, from this year's average requirement of 24.5 miles per gallon. Clinton proposes a 55 miles per gallon standard, also by 2030.
The bigger difference between the two goes back to a vote Clinton cast in 2005 against an amendment to that year's energy bill. The amendment would have raised the average standard to 27.5 by 2016, but it failed in the Senate by a vote of 28 to 67. Obama voted for it.
Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson told FactCheck.org that Clinton voted against the 2005 amendment because "she wanted the auto companies to come to the table with some options. Since then, she has supported a number of measures to provide incentives to auto companies to retool their plants to produce more efficient vehicles, and she has supported increasing fuel economy standards to go along with those incentives." Others have speculated that Democrats who opposed the 2005 proposal did so rather than incur the political disfavor of the auto industry and the United Auto Workers union by supporting something that wasn't likely to become law. A similar measure had already been voted down by the House, then still controlled by Republicans.
Price Inflation
Obama's ad greatly exaggerates the rise in fuel prices. It says that "across Pennsylvania" families are struggling with "gas prices close to four dollars a gallon."
Actually, in Pennsylvania the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.32 as of April 10, according to state-by-state data from the American Automobile Association. The highest price for regular that AAA recorded anywhere in the state was $3.41, at a gas station in Erie. Even premium grade gasoline was selling for a statewide average of $3.65, well short of four dollars.
Late-breaking update: The Obama campaign posted an interactive feature on its Web site April 11. It includes a statement that Clinton "voted for oil tax giveaways." An Obama spokesman says that refers to her vote in 2004 in favor of the American Jobs Creation Act, which was a broad tax measure meant to end trade sanctions against U.S. exports that had been imposed because of a World Trade Organization ruling. News accounts at the time noted that oil companies would be among those benefiting from the wide-ranging bill. An analyst for the Tax Policy Center later called it "a potpourri of new tax breaks for businesses" large and small. It further allowed individual taxpayers the temporary option of deducting state and local sales taxes. Clinton was among 25 Senate Democrats to vote for final passage, while only 14 opposed it. Obama was not then a member of the Senate.
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