I thought they were the old, experienced ones...?

I've grown mildly addicted to CNN.com's Political Ticker, which is basically a gossip column devoted to U.S. politics. Here's where they post the stories that may or may not be heavy enough to go up on the Top Stories list with the latest news about how Lindsay Lohan was abducted by a dog that can do backflips (...or something). For instance, there's a story up today reporting (in a somewhat breathless tone) that Barack Obama has sent a letter to the Pentagon about increasing benefits for war veterans suffering from traumatic brain injury (TBI), and - ooh! ooh! - Evan Bayh signed it, too!!! OMG, Obama is, like, so totally going to pick him as his VP! Wounded Iraq/Afghanistan vets, what? (You get the picture.)

And then there's this story about the McCain campaign's "response" to Obama's comment that inflating tires properly can increase fuel efficiency. They printed up little tire gauges with "Obama's Energy Plan" written on them, and then distributed them to the press corps. According to this, the campaign also intends to sell the tire gauges as a fund-raiser. Putting aside the idea that I don't really understand the strategy behind using one's own campaign funds to make souvenirs imprinted with your opponent's name...

What's the punchline? Am I missing something here? Using the optimum tire pressure does improve gas mileage, which means you use less gas (right?), which means ultimately you're helping conserve oil. Now, if tire pressure didn't in fact affect mileage, Obama saying that it did would be mock-worthy ... kind of like if Obama's folks started selling maps showing the Iran-Pakistan border.

Actually, no. I can't tell you how big a turn-off it is for me to see the campaign of a person who presumes to be my president acting like a bunch of middle-schoolers. I've always felt that campaigns, like job interviews, are about more than exploring a candidate's list of qualifications. I look for how the prospective president manages people and puts out fires, how he or she acts under pressure. We've just put up with eight years of this WASPy frat-boy entitlement BS, and this kind of stuff doesn't do much to convince me that a McCain presidency would have a very different mentality. Grow up, please.

UPDATE: The NY Times' political blog has more... Apparently someone (it's not clear from this whether it's the McCain campaign, the Republican National Committee or another group) sent Obama one of the tire gauges as a birthday present. Seriously...? I need to stop before I start suggesting birthday gifts for McCain...