Senator Flip-Flop

18 June 2008 |permalink | email article

Which John McCain are we supposed to believe – the 2000 presidential candidate who supported the moratorium on offshore oil drilling, or the presumptive Republican nominee who proposes lifting the ban on such drilling?

Hours after McCain blamed his shift on the need to reduce dependence on foreign oil and help combat rising fuel prices the White House said President Bush will ask Congress to lift the ban which B41 ordered in 1990.

Barack Obama called McCain’s flip-flop another example of telling Texas oil executives what they want to hear: short-term political posturing from Washington, not long-term leadership needed to solve the problem.

McCain’s new position is absolute political suicide in California where the issue of offshore drilling first surface in 1969, after a giant oil spill off Santa Barbara.

The proposal also puts McCain at odds with environmentalists who insist it conflicts with his plans to combat global warming.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who supports McCain but opposes offshore drilling, is now trapped in a politically impossible position.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has also expressed opposition to offshore exploration. But now he backs McCain’s plan to lift the moratorium and will not rule out letting his state chose to drill offshore – another politically risky electoral move.

Here’s the illusion about a quick fix that McCain, channeling Bush, doesn’t grasp: even if the offshore federal ban is lifted the cost of exploration and production, aside from environmental concerns, will not benefit struggling consumers for between seven and 10 years.

Quote of the Day

“I generally don’t write columns about the manifestly obvious, but, yes, the man responsible for keeping Americans safe from another terrorist attack on American soil for nearly seven years now will go down in history as one of America’s greatest presidents. . . .John McCain should be so lucky as to be running for Bush’s third term. Then he might have a chance.” – Ann Coulter, suggesting that Bush’s America has been 100 percent Al-Qaeda free since 2001.
(Ed. Note: It is also manifestly obvious that Bush, at 28%, has perhaps the lowest approval rating of any U.S. president since polling began in 1936.)

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