Blogs For Victory

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…