More energy talk, more skirmishing

John McCain and Barack Obama were back today in battleground states, promoting their energy plans and slamming each other along the way.

McCain plans an event in Racine, Wisc., with the buzz over his new TV ad ridiculing Obama as the "biggest celebrity in the world" still reverberating in the political world. The Republican is continuing to bash Obama for being "Dr. No" by opposing offshore oil drilling.

McCain today also mocked Obama for a suggestion to improve gas mileage.

"Yesterday, he suggested we put air in our tires to save on gas," McCain said. "My friends, let's do that, but do you think that's enough to break our dependence on Middle Eastern oil? I don't think so. So I believe that every energy source needs to be part of the solution. We need to develop new alternative energies like wind, solar, tide, biofuels, but we also need to develop more existing energies like nuclear power and clean coal."

Obama, meanwhile, is holding a town hall meeting in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the state that catapulted him to the front of the Democratic pack. His surprise victory in the January caucuses positioned him as the front-runner, a status he never really gave up before finally clinching the nomination in June.

He is responding to the string of negative ads from McCain by telling voters that Republicans are trying to scare them and make him look like a risk, when the real risk is not changing from the Bush administration's disastrous policies.

Obama said Washington has failed to address the energy crisis, and said that McCain is offering only more tax breaks for big oil companies and the mirage of offshore oil drilling.

"While this won’t save you at the pump, it sure has done a lot to raise campaign dollars," Obama said in prepared remarks. "Last month, Senator McCain raised more than a million dollars from oil and gas company executives and employees – most of which came after he announced his drilling plan in front of a bunch of oil executives in Houston. This is not a strategy designed to end our energy crisis -- it’s a strategy designed to get politicians through an election, and that’s exactly why Washington has failed to do anything about our energy dependence for the last 30 years."