Chasing The SUV Vote - Boston Globe

[hatrack]

SPORT UTILITY vehicles roared into stump speeches this month, flattening all common sense. At a speech last week introducing President Bush, Virginia's Governor George Allen juiced the crowd by asking how many people arrived there in their SUVs and pickup trucks. After a show of hands, Allen was quoted by The Washington Post as saying, "Heck, John Kerry doesn't even like what you drive." Allen was wrong. Only three days before in Missouri, out of the earshot of the environmental think tanks in Washington and California, Kerry said: "I want Americans to drive. You want to drive a great big SUV? Terrific. That's America."

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The reflexive rush to win the SUV vote is no laughing matter on several fronts. Heinz Kerry, like many Americans, says SUVs represent "safety first." Yet studies show they do not. Figures released this week by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show the fatality gap in rollover-prone SUVs to be widening over regular cars and minivans. The agency also released data last week indicating that the chances of a rollover were more than four times higher for a Ford Explorer Sport Trac than a four-door Mazda RX-8 sedan. The worst-rated car for rollovers, the Subaru Outback wagon, is still only about half as risky as the Chevrolet Tahoe, the Ford Explorer, the Mercury Mountaineer, and the GMC Yukon.

Besides the mirage of safety, the SUV, with its horrific gas mileage and proven negative effects on the air we breathe, remains a potent symbol of how Americans refuse to rethink their place in the world, let alone sacrifice, in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the retaliatory war in Afghanistan, and the unprovoked invasion of Iraq.

We are already consuming a quarter of the world's oil with only about 6 percent of the world's population. Much of the world suspects that our acute interest in Iraq has less to do with the liberation of its people than the flow of oil to our local gas pumps. We provide no case to the contrary; SUV's make up 27 percent of America's light-duty vehicles. Every other car sold in the United States is an SUV, a fact blunted neither by $2-a-gallon gas nor an uncertain economy. Despite the deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans here and nearly 950 US soldiers in Iraq, Americans are literally driving themselves into denial."

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[phantom power]

1. *sigh* We're doomed, aren't we.

[cprise]

2. Kerry is "playing chess"

Remember? :eyes:

[ramapo]

3. High and Mighty

I thought SUVs were a real bad idea just due to their poor fuel economy until I read "High and Mighty".

The rollover problem is very real. I know somebody whose son was killed in a rollover accident. It wasn't a particulary horrific crash but the SUV in the hands of a young, inexperienced, and somewhat foolish driver, tipped over inflicting fatal injuries.

What scares me is the height of the SUV bumper, high enough to defeat many of the safety features of your sedan. Your chances of being seriously injured or killed are much greater if you are hit broadside or headon by an SUV.

Some people figure they better get an SUV so they can be safe again. And around we go. How distressing.

Then there are the SUV tax breaks and the failure to classify these vehicles as trucks. We have the auto lobby to thank there. I'll never forgive the Clinton/Gore cave-in on this issue along with their failure to raise CAFE standards.

It all makes me mad as hell.

[Massacure]

4. Kerry is mirroring Bush.

In 2000, Bush ran moderate then when he took office he also took a hard right turn.

Now, Kerry is also running moderate, and I very well think he will take a hard left turn.