Obama Flips Again: This Time on Offshore Drilling
August 2nd, 2008 at 04:44pm Mark Noonan
I guess his handlers have seen some polling showing McCain and the GOP clobbering Obama and his Democrats on this issue:
In An Interview With The Palm Beach Post, Obama Said He Would Support Offshore Drilling:
Obama Said He Would Be Open To Offshore Drilling Because He Wanted A “Comprehensive Energy Policy That Can Bring Down Gas Prices.” “U.S. Sen. Barack Obama said today he would be willing to open Florida ’s coast for more oil drilling if it meant winning approval for broad energy changes. ‘My interest is in making sure we’ve got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices,’ Obama said in an interview with The Palm Beach Post. ‘If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage - I don’t want to be so rigid that we can’t get something done,’ Obama said.” (Michael C. Bender, “Obama Would Consider Off-Shore Drilling As Part Of Comprehensive Energy Plan,” Palm Beach [FL] Post, 8/1/08)
But Obama Has Vehemently Opposed And Derided Offshore Drilling:
Just A Few Days Ago, Obama Called Offshore Drilling A “Scheme.” Obama: “Now the latest scheme is well, we’re going to drill offshore. Now, I want to be absolutely clear to everybody about this. If I thought that I could provide you some immediate relief on gas prices by drilling off the shores of California and New Jersey , I understand how desperate folks are. I met a guy who couldn’t go on a job search that lost his job, couldn’t go on a job search because of the high price of gas. Just couldn’t fill up his tank. I met a teacher in South Dakota who loved her job as a teacher on an Indian reservation, she had to quit because the drive was too far, it was taking up too much of her paycheck. I know how bad people are hurting. So If I thought that by drilling offshore, we could solve our problem, I’d do it.” (Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks At Campaign Event, Springfield , MO, 7/30/08)
As Matt noted recently, Obama’s “bounce” from his “Teach me, please” foreign tour had dwindled, and with Gallup’s tracking now showing Obama and McCain tied for two straight days, Team Obama is probably starting to get worried…though I doubt, at this point, that Obama is. While Obama does have to real solid political “nuts and bolts” troopers on his side, he seems to believe he’s the Chosen One Destined to Save the World.
As I’ve been saying, if “story” (in the children’s fairy tale sense of the word) is most important, than Obama gets sworn in on January 20th…if, on the other hand, the election turns on competance, then we’ll have ourselves President McCain come January. The Gallup tracking is a good poll, as far as polls go, and while it will warm GOP hearts to see it tied for a while, we can expect it to fluctuate around a bit. When Obama selects his VP he might get a bounce, but so might McCain when his VP selection is announced. Ditto with the respective conventions. But the fact that Obama has only very temporarily ever opened up what can be considered a lead (ie, a poll lead outside the margin of error) shows that there are grave doubts about Obama in the general populace, and this is the are McCain can exploit - especially as we get closer to the vote - to derail the Obama express.
As it relates to offshore drilling, only the most dyed-in-the-wool liberal thinks its the wrong idea - in fact, more than that, one has to be a downright fool to say we shouldn’t. If you’re going to have a plan to get America to be all or mostly energy independent, expanding domestic production of oil is a vital piece of the puzzle - not as a permanent solution, because the solution is to find an alternative to oil, but as part of the bridge between oil and alternative. McCain sees this, Obama didn’t - untill pressed to it by the hard facts of life, and the risk of a loss on his own part.
The problem here is not so much that Obama is slow off the mark on these common sense ideas, but that he has to be under threat to his own success before he’ll move. Again and again, only the risk to his own political prospects makes him ditch the liberal/left ideology and deal with facts as they are. This is the recipe for weak President who will be the laughingstock of the world, as our enemies exploit his weaknesses and our friends shake their heads in wonder that we managed to elect another Jimmy Carter. America should not place itself at risk just because one guy is telegenic and speaks well in a set piece campaign rally.
UPDATE: NRO’s The Corner has an eyewitness account of what happened when the Democrats cut and ran from the energy debate:
It’s too bad they’ve turned off the cameras and microphones in the House of Representatives because the Republicans are orchestrating an excellent political scene. As I was making my way over to the House chamber, I could hear the crowds inside chanting, “Drill! Drill! Drill!” Families, staff members and press were sitting in the gallery space above the floor listening to one speech after another - there were even some families and staff members sitting down on the floor - when one of the members came to the floor and said,
“The Capitol Police are going to be closing the Chamber in a few minutes, which means all of you are going to have to leave. But we’re not going to let that happen. Instead, we want everyone in the gallery - yes, everyone - to come down to the floor so they can’t kick you out of the Capitol. Members will be coming up to escort you downstairs right now.”
And sure enough, one member after another starting bringing groups of us down to the floor. The place was packed and people continue to come into the chamber as members were speaking without microphones from the central pit in front of the dais. The atmosphere reminded me of a session of Prime Ministers Questions in the House of Commons. People were shouting out from the crowd that they wanted to Democrats to come back to debate this issue, members were requesting the President to exercise his constitutional right to request the House to come back from recess to debate gas prices, and when I left the floor five or six Congressmen were hosting a press conference outside the chamber.
According to one speaker, forty-eight members had come to the floor to speak for a total of more than five hours.
Can you believe this chickens*** nonsense? Using the cops to clear the floor? Turning off the microphones? Never in the course of American history has there been a more cowardly act than these Democrats - Obama’s Democrats - running away rather than dealing with the people’s business….and the fact that they ran away gives us more understanding of what Obama is up to. He knows he’ll be crushed on the oil issue, and thus wants out of it…the House Democrats, on the other hand, are afraid to move either way for fear of angering the kook left or the center…
Entry Filed under: Campaign 2008, Democrats, Energy Issues, Republicans
28 Comments
1. Danish Artist | August 2nd, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Wow, another change.
If his campaign is any indication, if (God forbid) he becomes President, he will govern according to polls and not be a LEADER - just like the last liberal to occupy the White House.
Obama may as well lick his finger and see which way the wind blows and head off in that direction.
Apparently, he’s not paying attention to the liberal talking points. What will Pelosi do now? Will she not stand in the way of their golden boy or continue thwart Bush no matter what? She needs to tell Obama to keep quiet wait, possibly for January, because there is no way she and Reid will allow anything that may interpret as help for Bush.
To the Pelosi/Reid embarrassment, the least popular and ineffective congressional leadership in the history of this county, politics comes before the welfare of the people unless it is something they (the liberals) truly want.
2. Patrick | August 2nd, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Deleted - off topic.
3. Stretchrun | August 2nd, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Deleted - off topic.
4. hermie | August 2nd, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Again, Obama demonstrates that Rev Wright was correct. He is a typical politician.
5. Just asking | August 2nd, 2008 at 6:23 pm
‘My interest is in making sure we’ve got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices,’ Obama said in an interview with The Palm Beach Post. ‘If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage - I don’t want to be so rigid that we can’t get something done,’ Obama said.”
Where in that quote do you see the word “Florida” or the phrase “off US shores”?
6. Patrick | August 2nd, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Deleted - off topic.
7. Nate | August 2nd, 2008 at 8:13 pm
seems like you might want to embrace this and obama — basically turning into mccain on so many things and he can make a speech with more than a few sentences which three-ups so many conservative repubs.
and yes, obama is a celebrity (as is mccain) per the dictionary definition:
“Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
ce·leb·ri·ty Audio Help /səˈlɛbrɪti/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[suh-leb-ri-tee] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun, plural -ties for 1.
1. a famous or well-known person.
2. fame; renown.”
8. neocon | August 2nd, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Bye Bye Base, Bye Bye happiness, hello loneliness, I think I’m a gonna cry, bye bye base!!!
Obama is alienating his far left base more and more everyday, I saw the CodePink gal the other day and she was livid.
Of course this just proves that the far left is much less of a majority than they think, and even Obama realizes that he needs practical polices that strengthen America and not just the motivational speeches he’s been delivering lately. Soon he’ll be advised that his tax policies punish small businesses and will begin to refine that one as well.
The majority of Americans now want to drill, and have always wanted a strong defense and a growing, free market economy. Of course we all know there are many regulations of that free market and some necessarily so, but the more it is left unfettered, the better.
Obama will simply not win this election. He has already proven to be too inexperienced, too quick to pander, and an amateur when left unscripted.
9. Just asking | August 2nd, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Just as I expected. Corporate media deleted the last paragraph of his statement during his interview with The Palm Beach Post.
Below is the paragraph that was edited out.
“Like all compromises, it also includes steps that I haven’t always supported,” Obama conceded. “I remain skeptical that new offshore drilling will bring down gas prices in the short-term or significantly reduce our oil dependence in the long-term, though I do welcome the establishment of a process that will allow us to make future drilling decisions based on science and fact.”
He never flipped or flopped on off-shore drilling, like McCain did.
10. hermie | August 2nd, 2008 at 9:17 pm
So now he claims he was mearly ’skeptical’ when only days earlier he was completely against it.
He keeps ‘clarifying’ his remarks, and he keeps digging that hole deeper and deeper.
11. neocon | August 2nd, 2008 at 9:20 pm
What’s ironic though is Obama’s proposed legislation to not make public the findings of a study designed to estimate the amount of off shore domestic crude reserves. So, if in fact he’s now for drilling based on science and fact, why did he vote to:
A. Not fund the study in the first place (which lost)
B. Make the study strictly confidential.
So many questions.
So many refined answers.
Obama, though, did not give up in his efforts to keep the public ignorant. In January 2007, he proposed legislation to eliminate the authorization to conduct the inventory, as established in the 2005 law. Obama’s bill is S. 115. The key provision is section 101(a)(5). It provides that “Section 357 (42 U.S.C. 15912) (relating to comprehensive inventory of OCS oil and natural gas resources)” is “repealed as of the date of enactment of this act.” It’s my understanding that Obama is the only sponsor of this legislation. - powerline
12. Just asking | August 2nd, 2008 at 9:20 pm
It appears the deletion of that last paragraph may be the work of Ron Fournier, the Associated Press Washington Bureau chief. He was recently looking for a job on the McCain campaign and is friends with the McCain camp, even using the phrase, “Keep up the good fight,” in an e-mail to McCain’s staff.
At least everybody here can be reassured that Obama it still against off-shore drilling.
13. New Conservative | August 2nd, 2008 at 9:27 pm
I’m sure we just didn’t understand his position to begin with. There is no way Barack would ever change his mind on anything. Remember he never has any doubts.
http://thenewconservatives.blogspot.com/
14. js | August 2nd, 2008 at 11:13 pm
its politically convenient to go with public opinion…but that doesnt make obama a leader…because it wasnt his idea…it does make him a cheaper person…because he abandoned his base for public opinion…
15. js | August 2nd, 2008 at 11:14 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_mzadEFuP4
rock on…
16. Mark Noonan | August 3rd, 2008 at 12:35 am
Just,
That is essentially already noted - the problem is that Obama hewed to a foolhardy, leftwing line on it until forced off that position by a risk to his personal, political prospects. This man isn’t a leader - he’s a rather self-absorbed conglomeration of massive, blinding ambition…
17. Tractatus | August 3rd, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Never in the course of American history has there been a more cowardly act than these Democrat
Spoken like a true ignorant partisan, Noonan. In other words, par for the course for you.
Inside the worst Congress ever (Hint: it was the GOP majority one). Here, you will read all about GOPers not telling Democrats where meetings are being held, GOP committee chairmen refusing to acknowledge rules and simply picking up the gavel and walking out, changing bills post-committee and refusing to allow those changes to be seen, and all sorts of other crap.
So…you were saying about “chicken**** nonsense?” hypocrite?
Here’s the part where you deflect and revel in your hypocrisy while pretending to be principled. Go ahead, stick to your script, Noonan. It’s all you’ve got.
18. neocon | August 3rd, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Tract,
Look over there!
You’re so predictable.
19. Ken | August 3rd, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Interesting… the Dems were going to use the Capitol Police to shut down the debate on drilling for oil. That and turning off the microphones so the Republicans could not be heard.
For a political party that screams how much the 1st amendment is great, they seem to be the first ones to toss it out the window when any debate goes against their views…
I’m guessing to them, the only right to free speach people have is only to agree with the dims… oops… Dems…
20. Danish Artist | August 3rd, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Tract, you are predictable. The Democrats wrote the book on dirty politics.
Before the Republican victories in ‘94. The only way a Republican could have the floor during a debate was when a Democrat would give a portion of their time to that Republican.
It was only after the 94 Republican victories that these rules were changed. And Democrats wanted them changed to they would be allowed floor time since they were the minority party.
NOTICE….the same liberal tactics are being attempted again. Pelosi is not allowing any debate, discussion or mention of offshore drilling, period. Democrats are once again doing what they accuse other of doing.
Now, get your head out of your ass and pay attention to the true liberals in action - free speech, who needs it, not when it is used against us. Fairness - not while we are in charge.
21. cam | August 3rd, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Looks like another case of twisting the facts to fit the conclusion. Obama stays consistent on his position on oil drilling. However, he realizes that in politics one must be willing to compromise to reach his goals. Ultimately his main goal is to move the country toward alternative fuels. If the Republicans are stubborn about oil drilling and insist that oil drilling be included in any energy bill he realizes that an all or nothing approach may not be productive. Politics is the art of compromise.
Next time read the article.
22. Tractatus | August 4th, 2008 at 11:22 am
You’re so predictable.
As are you. Except I actually, you know, use facts. You break down everything along party lines. That;s why it’s OK for Republicans to do what it is shameful and horrible for Democrats to do.
Man, you guys are entirely too easy. Really. Could you at least try to make this a challenge? I mean, look at Danish Artist break the Ironymeter and not even realize it:
Democrats are once again doing what they accuse other of doing
Poor guy. If you need help figuring that out, just let me know, OK?
23. Pool Boy | August 4th, 2008 at 11:57 am
WHEN WILL THE FLIPPING END
Obama Equals Failed Promises
First he failed to keep his campaign finance reform promise. A pledge he made to the public and the press.
Second, Barack Obama promised us that a Surge in Iraq would not work and now that it has he is calling for one in Afghanistan
Thirdly, he is failing to keep his promise to debate John McCain numerous times and in two formats. Suddenly, with the race tight he is only willing to debate 3 times and not in the town hall format he previously and publicly agreed to.
Barack Obama has brought us only failed promises so far and with a track record like that why should anyone vote for him as President.
24. Danish Artist | August 4th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Tract,
you use facts???? please point them out - all I see is BS. You make assinine claims of what I did not say. I never said it was ok for what, if true, you claim the Republicans are doing. I said that Democrats wrote the book and have done in the past. AND at the same time, accuse others of doing while the Democrats claim to be victims…..cry-babies is more like it.
When you start using facts, then I will consider you as a somewhat serious individual. Until then, I can get more productivity from my son’s pet gerble in its exercise wheel than I can from the likes of you.
Meanwhile, continue with your panic…..
25. SEW | August 4th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
” he is failing to keep his promise to debate John McCain numerous times and in two formats”
Anytime, anyplace. Hussein 0bama.
26. Flop Flipper | August 4th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
This was something that defined Obama from the Republicans. I can’t believe he flip flopped on this.
JUst wait till Nancy Pelosi gets his a$$ alone. she will bring him back into the fold.
Obama, you let me down bro. Don’t give these Republicans anything to floppity flip you on. Put the damned spatula down.
27. kmg | August 4th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Deleted - off topic.
28. Tractatus | August 4th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
So you’re saying you need help, Danish Artist? OK, let me help you through it.
You hate Democrats for doing what Republicans do. You then accuse Democrats of doing what they attack Republicans for doing. In other words, you engage in the very hypocrisy you claim to be against.
Still need me to dumb it down even more for you? Just say the word.