Obama shifts on offshore oil drilling

Saturday 02nd August, 05:56 AM JST

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Latest 15 of 47 Total Comments Show All

SuperLib at 05:48 PM JST - 2nd August

I support Obama on this.
RomeoRamenII at 07:25 PM JST - 2nd August

So, to recap:

After having flatly said no to more drilling, no to more nuclear power, no to any use of oil shale or development of coal or anything else that might realistically address America's energy dependency on foreign oil, obama now suddenly says that he would agree to a compromise on off shore drilling?

Team obama is reading the writing on the wall. The ship has already sailed on this issue for obama as of today and there he stands limply attempting to change position, while still attempting to cling to his already demonstratively failed policy.

It'll be another five weeks before Congress will even begin to revisit lifting the ban on off shore drilling and he knows it. So now obama (having seen his numbers tank since the europeon ego trip) and after having gotten feedback on his other piece of lunacy earlier in the day, (where he told people to put air in their tires and get their cars tuned up), he has suddenly decided to try going with the wind instead of against it.

But the ploy won't wash. Voting Americans are now witnesseing how obama's hopes and dreams to win in November are dimming daily and slipping away, and obama knows it.

RR
SezWho2 at 08:11 PM JST - 2nd August

RomeoRamenII,

If the way you translate "I prefer Obama to McCain" is that Obama is my hero, I would urge you to seek a refund from whatever school of translation you attended.

I don't understand what payoff you get by pretending to know me better than I know myself. But I can only hazard that you really have nothing to say about the issue.

You have claimed that Obama has reversed his position and that he is in favor of offshore drilling. Do you have any credible evidence to support that? Or do you just translate his preference for not granting offshore drilling rights to mean that he supports offshore drilling?
zurcronium at 10:02 PM JST - 2nd August

McCain reversed on drilling just a few weeks ago. So Obama does the same.

Why are the repubs so uptight about this. Oh, its because their candidate has no plans, no programs to talk about and no future. He wants to nap himself into the presidency. And let Rove slime his way to victory as he did for the boy emperor.
Betzee at 11:16 PM JST - 2nd August

It's unfortunate nobody is aware of the legislative context for Obama's remarks. Extending the tax credits for alternative forms of energy is stalled in Congress by Republican insistence that a provision for off-shore drilling be included. Obama is simply saying, "OK, if that's what it takes, so be it."
Madverts at 12:35 AM JST - 3rd August

zurc,

McCain did have the summer gas tax "plan".
undecidedbout08 at 02:14 AM JST - 3rd August

Sen. Obama grows more like George Bush each week. He is a Bush enabler!

Off shore drilling is just one more Democratic principle Sen. Barack Obama does not stand for.

He now opposes gun control, he supports limitless funding for Iraq, he's pro death penalty, and he flipped on FISA .

No wonder he is tied with McCain...
Wolfpack at 05:11 AM JST - 3rd August

Obama has no real history of bipartisanship so I can only assume that he is mouthing the words until he can get elected. It is not even remotely possible to go cold turkey and immediately stop using oil and coal. The entire world economy is designed for these types of fuels. In fact, in the short to medium term it is vitally important for the US to ramp up production as much as possible. The only viable medium term answer is nuclear. It is possible to build a large number of nuclear plants over the next 10 to 25 years to offset the countries reliance on oil from the middle east. Then maybe, just maybe, in the medium to long term some alternative energy sources will prove viable. For the forseeable future, they will not be sufficiently developed to provide any more than a small proportion of the countries ever growing energy needs. But at this point, I think that we should be doing everything - drilling, developing clean coal, natural gas liguification, wind, solar, nuclear, conservation - everything. Conservatives and Liberals should just say they are both right and get going. Right now, nothing is happening - Pelosi and Reid will not allow Republicans to have any input into any energy related legislation and as a result, Congress is in paralysis.

McCain has looked at the reality of expensive energy and its effect upon the economy and he has changed his mind on off shore oil drilling. That's a rational assessment of the nations economic and national security situation. In Obama's case, he actually wants energy to be expensive - he just didn't want the price for it to rise as quickly as it did. The polls are showing that he is being hurt by not supporting any near term policy to increase energy supply. Therefore, he is making hints that he would "consider" doing so without saying he definately will so as not to offend the radical environmental groups that would hammer him if he came out for drilling.

There is no immediate solution to the energy crisis, but the quickest one is the one that Obama and other Liberals are least in favor of - producing more domestic oil, coal, and natural gas. Ironically, this hard headed way of thinking hurts the poorest people the most - the very people that Liberals profess to represent.
Betzee at 05:36 AM JST - 3rd August

The polls are showing that he is being hurt by not supporting any near term policy to increase energy supply.

Indeed. I find it significant that half of our country believes off-shore drilling will have an impact on prices within a year. In fact the US Dept of Energy's own Energy Information Administration www site http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/otheranalysis/ongr.html reveals that lifting existing restrictions on offshore drilling wouldn’t result in additional domestic oil production until 2017. Even then its impact on price at the pump is estimated to be insignificant.

While no one is suggesting cold turkey, you can't have both private-sector development of alternative forms of energy and an increase in domestic production. The venture capitalists who will need to pony up the money for research will be reluctant to do so if there's the prospect of more oil coming on the market since the transition costs will be significant.
SezWho2 at 06:24 PM JST - 3rd August

undecidedbout08,

Obama voted "with Bush" 49% of the time in 2006 and 40% of the time in 2007. As far as Democrats are concerned, he's about in the middle. McCain voted "with Bush" 95% of the time last year and since 2001 has averaged 89%.

We can see from this who the real Bush enabler is. We can also see that Obama has never consistently opposed Bush. Betzee's comment is the most sensible recent one. When you look at what Obama is saying against the background of what Congress is doing, criticisms of Obama's "flip-flop" miss the mark.
sailwind at 07:20 PM JST - 3rd August

It's just fun with numbers. McCain voted with his party 95% of the time in 2007 it's that simple. Of course you can twist that into Bush support but it really isn't a fair comparision just an attempt to say he supported Bush instead what would be common sense. He voted with his party most of the time which isn't really shocking and Bush happens to lead that party so this is just a sneaky way of guilt by association instead of any real stand for Bush in general by McCain.

I'll leave readers to make up their mind.

But suppose the sitting President was a Democrat? Then the numbers for Obama would be???????? I'm thinking 96% of the time would be a fair number along with his voting record of the past.

http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/isittruejohnmccainvotedwith.html

Also, Obama voted in line with fellow Senate Democrats 97 percent of the time in 2007 and 2005, and 96 percent of the time in 2006, according to CQ.

And so . . .

So to sum up, McCain has indeed voted to support the unpopular Bush 95 percent of the time most recently, but less so in earlier years. And Obama has voted pretty close to 100 percent in line with fellow Democrats during his brief Senate career.
SezWho2 at 12:39 AM JST - 4th August

sailwind,

I think your point about party line voting is accurate, but I think you play fast and loose with your summary. You wish to characterize McCain's percentage of party-line vote as 95% but Obama's as almost 100%. I doubt that there is any statistical difference between 95 and 96.

Yes, Democrats and Republicans both tend to vote along party lines. But so what? That does not change the fact that Obama is in the middle of the pack of Democrats when it comes to voting with the administration. I am speaking to the bit of whimsy that characterizes Obama as a "Bush-enabler".

For all the fun you are having with numbers, the truth is that Obama was less a "Bush-enabler" last year than the year before. And another truth is that among Democrats he was not at either extreme--those falling in with the administration line or those strenuously opposing it. And, incidentally, since Obama also rates fairly high in voting with his party against the other party (which is what I think the CQ numbers show), it means that Democrats, in general, have supported ideas embraced by the administration to a fairly significant degree.

This is not about playing with numbers. This is about putting a stop to talking trash.
Sarge at 07:06 AM JST - 5th August

Bad news for Obama and the Democrats: Oil prices are at a 3 month low.
USAPatriot at 07:09 AM JST - 5th August

Sarge- great post!!!

Another flip flop from Barack Hussein Obama, how can anyone believe a word this guy says? Hee Hee!
knucklerap at 08:43 PM JST - 8th August

Indeed. I find it significant that half of our country believes off-shore drilling will have an impact on prices within a year. In fact the US Dept of Energy's own Energy Information Administration www site http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/otheranalysis/ongr.html reveals that lifting existing restrictions on offshore drilling wouldn’t result in additional domestic oil production until 2017. Even then its impact on price at the pump is estimated to be insignificant.

Time to flip on Artic National Wildlife Reserve. This has got to be a quicker solution than offshore drilling and with far less environmental damage to worry about.