They are two fallacious arguments aimed at the same source.

First is a John McCain television commercial about the high price of oil, and in it blame is squarely put on the shoulders of a single junior senator from Illinois who hasn't yet finished his first term and does not serve on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

You can probably figure out who the McCain camp wants us to blame for the pain at the pump.

Second is a Web ad by the Republican National Committee targeting Democrat Barack Obama's much-discussed, much-covered speech in Berlin, where he talked about eliminating walls between cultures and races, a speech heard by an estimated 200,000 people.

McCain's response? Equate Obama, a Harvard Law School-educated presidential nominee with a rare flair for rhetorical eloquence, with two bimbo starlets, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

While the midsummer timing may seem early in the election season to launch attack ads, they're indicative of McCain's predicament: being on the wrong side of popular opinion on just about every major issue in the campaign.

The war in Iraq remains unpopular. A majority of registered voters have said they've experienced some form of financial hardship in the last year, and two-thirds said they believe the government can fix their problems. Those who believe health care is the most important issue favor Obama by an overwhelming majority — and so do those who are concerned about the economy.

All McCain and the GOP have left in their arsenal are ad hominem attacks to tear down the pristine image of Obama as savior to the nation's ills. McCain already has name recognition, and according to Reid Wilson of RealClearPolitics.com, the only thing the Arizona senator needs to complete the formula for a successful presidential campaign is to convince people not to vote for his opponent.

That's hard to do when Obama's singing the song a majority of people want to hear. All McCain has left is to strike at Obama's image, and you can expect the attack ads to keep rolling out all summer long.

Drilling the point home
McCain has at least opened an advantage on Obama in one area: energy.

Using the last Franklin & Marshall College poll of voters nationwide, it's not difficult to see why McCain's up in this area, and Obama would be wise to curtail his message on gasoline prices and energy policy so as to effectively counter McCain.

Nearly 40 percent of those polled said the economy is the No. 1 issue of the election, with energy policy garnering only 5 percent. The environment isn't even on the list.

A closer look, though, shows that three-fourths of the respondents said some sort of financial trouble, and high gasoline prices or health insurance costs or the economy in general, are the most important issues facing them personally. Again, the environment doesn't even make an appearance.

This is a pocketbook election. So it's no wonder McCain's winning on this front when he has people convinced expanded domestic oil drilling will save them dollars.

It's a false formula, because any savings wouldn't impact our bank accounts for years, even decades, and it's quite possible the growing worldwide demand for oil will swallow up potential savings. But those are the dirty details missing in McCain's message. For now, he's telling the American people that more domestic oil drilling equals savings at the pump.

A look at Obama's energy platform illustrates why he's struggling to get traction on this issue. He's advocating a complex cap-and-trade formula to reduce carbon emissions; incentives to stop deforestation; funding development of biofuels; making old manufacturing sites green; encouraging geothermal, solar and wind electricity use; and much more.

Catch a theme there? Obama's message is about saving the environment — probably something he's trying to utilize as an appeal to his party's base — but while these pursuits may indeed protect the natural world, it's not clear how they will save the American people money.

If gas prices continue to hover around $4 a gallon, it could be the issue propelling McCain to an upset. Obama would be wise to explain how his policies not only save air, land and water but money, too.

Quotes of the Week
"I feel great and am confident that the treatment and care I received will allow me to return to serving the people of the 36th Senatorial District in the manner they expect."
—State Sen. Mike Brubaker after undergoing surgery to combat prostate cancer.

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"The office was created to track where tax dollars are being spent, and that should include how my tax dollars and your tax dollars are being spent in the Legislature."
—GOP nominee and Lancaster County resident Chet Beiler on how the state auditor general cannot investigate the Legislature's spending.

E-mail: dpidgeon@lnpnews.com