Excuse me a moment, Obama Campaign staffers, and McCain campaign staffers. I know that nothing I write can get anywhere close to either candidate before passing through several levels of staff, so I am addressing this to you, the worker who will read it for the first time. It does get a bit wordy, I apologize for that, but I have made it as brief as I can without sacrificing the point.
I am asking both candidates to respond to the following question. If you are elected, and re-elected, at the time you leave office after 8 years, please give me your best estimate of the following statistics:
Percentage of our oil we are importing (1973 = 35%, 2008 = 60%+)
Percentage of our energy derived from renewable sources (1973 8.4%, 2007 7% (year end, latest figures I have found, so far))
Price we will have to pay to put one gallon of gas in our car (we all know how ugly that number is today)
I will decide my vote based on the responses to this request. I can see several possible outcomes:
Neither candidate responds – I will understand that politics as normal is the rule of the day. I will also conclude that neither candidate has a solid grasp on the significance of our energy crisis, and has no solid plan to solve it.
I get a response from one or both campaigns, whether directly, or through listening to the campaign hype. Any candidate able to communicate an response, no matter what their vehicle, will get one “Atta Candidate”,1 or AC for short. added to their account.
I will be listening to all of the hype, and once that first AC is earned, further ACs may be earned your ability to convince me that you know what you are talking about, and/or, that you are indeed committed to eliminating our oil imports as fast as reasonably possible.
My vote will go to whomever has the most ACs when I cast my vote.
A word of warning, however, don’t be setting off my Energy BS Detector. I have some experience in the energy industry, worked in it for more than 30 years. Not only in the industry, my specialty was Procurement. I have been trained in BS detection by some of the best around, including some senior level staff from Bechtel. My experience, combined with the wealth of statistical information published by the Department of Energy, give me a pretty well developed ability to spot weaknesses, and of course, outright mis-statements of fact. An outright lie will automatically trigger a Full BS Alert (FBSA), which resets the AC score to negative 5. I may also issue lesser BS1s, BS2s, or BS3s, (each reducing your score of ACs by that number) for lesser instances, at my sole discretion.
Considering the profound role Energy plays in our current crises, I have decided to focus my efforts on this arena. I will apply your net AC/BS score to all of the issues, and vote based on that score. If you’re BS’ing me on Energy, I will assume you are BS’ing me everywhere. Accumulating ACs on Energy subject, an area I understand, also increases your credibility on the rest of the issues, where matters are not so simple to define. Convince me you have the best plan, and the commitment to stay with it, I will trust you with it all.
Good luck on the campaign, I know it will be entertaining. With my BS Detector by my side, I will be able to appreciate the entertainment value far more this time. And, I believe, better meet my responsibility to the United States of America by casting the most carefully and accurately considered vote of my life. This is as it should be. The issues our vote will decide this time are at least as important as any in my 41 years of being able to vote, perhaps, as I personally believe, even more so. I owe this much to my country, along with an apology for taking so long to figure it out.
1. “Atta Candidate” or “AC” comes from the old fashioned American slang term of “Atta Boy” but modified for political correctness.
Rick Olson
US Citizen retired and living in Thailand
