From the Associated Press:

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards told a labor group he would ask Americans to make a big sacrifice: their sport utility vehicles.

The former North Carolina senator told a forum by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, yesterday he thinks Americans are willing to sacrifice.

Edwards says Americans should be asked to drive more fuel efficient vehicles. He says he would ask them to give up SUVs.

My take? I have to say if Edwards thinks Americans are ready and willing to give up their SUV’s he probably doesn’t know America. I live in a suburb of a pretty small city and the amount of hummers I see driving around is insane. In my daily commute I see at least four hummers of all shapes and colors each and every day. If I go to a restaurant that doubles. I see regular old gas guzzling SUV’s non-stop and when I talk to SUV owners they wouldn’t trade them for anything short of another gas guzzling supped up sports car.

Ultimately I think any suggestion of people “sacrificing” their cars is a losing issue for Democrats. The much better strategy is the one adopted by Gov. Schwarzenegger which put simply is ‘instead of giving up our lifestyle, lets create the technology to make these cars fuel efficient and run on environmentally friendly technology and hold automakers to a higher standard’.