President Obama has just announced that he will lift a ban on oil drilling near Virginia’s shorelines. This is how we’re exploring alternate energy sources? By drilling fifty miles off the coast of Virginia?
Let’s hope some sort of mishap doesn’t result in the beaches being redecorated.
PAD
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From “when I’m president, I intend to keep in place the moratorium here in Florida and around the country that prevents oil companies from drilling off Florida’s coasts. That’s how we can protect our coastline and still make the investments that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and bring down gas prices for good.” to “Drill baby drill!”
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At this rate why would anyone need to elect Palin?
Sure didn’t take long for President Obama to undo the momentum he got from getting health care reform passed. Although this may be a cynical ploy to get stalled climate change legislation moving again in Congress, this move bodes poorly for other coastlines still being protected.
I really, really, really hope Republicans in congress react positively to this, since this is a position they supported under Bush, and during the last election. It would be nice to see them react positively to something done by Obama, if they agree with it. It may be too much to expect though (and I’m saying this as a Republican myself).
On the other hand, given the way Republicans rejected old Republican ideas when Obama presented them before (see the health-care reform bill for an example), perhaps Obama’s hope is that when he proposes offshore drilling, the Republicans will demand that it all be permanently outlawed.
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Also, I don’t really see where this is a repudiation of the quote above – Virginia isn’t Florida, and the quote doesn’t say anything about drilling off the coast of Virginia… 🙂
perhaps Obama’s hope is that when he proposes offshore drilling, the Republicans will demand that it all be permanently outlawed.
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Wouldn’t that be sweet?
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O: “I’m going to allow offshore drilling.”
Repubs: “That’s outrageous!”
O: “OK. You win. Here’s a bill outlawing it forever.”
“I really, really, really hope Republicans in congress react positively to this,”
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Well, the idea is that they give some ground on Climate Change legislation. However, I think Jon Stewart has some thoughts on how well this will work:
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http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-january-27-2010/blues-clueless
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“They’re not going to let you in the car!”
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You go, Obama! Protect those coastlines like you promised in the campaign!
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I’m really thinking lately that the “change” he told us over and over to believe in meant that we should believe he would change his mind on a lot of his campaign promises.
I’m actually ok with a politician changing their position on issues over time. I think a learned mind can support somethign they apposed years ago based on different information, or appose something they supported years ago. Contrary to many, I don’t see that as hypocrisy.
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I’m not sure the inability to change or adjust to new information/events is a trait I’d want my President to have.
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Obama is one step further though. He didn’t have enough experience in national/global issues and wasn’t involved in enough comittees in the Senate to always be able to have made informed platform statements during his campaign. It should be no suprise his eyes were suddenly opened to several truths and realities of situations that he previously thought were cut and dried.
A lot of people seem to be criticizing President Obama because he is not Candidate Obama. With the additional information a president in privy to, it is not surprising that some positions may change.
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There is an old axiom I’m many here are familiar with:”It’s not unusual to become a vegetarian after a visit to the slaughterhouse.”
I’ve never been to a commerical slaughterhouse, but when I was a little kid I loved watching my grandfather butcher hogs. It was fun watching the guts and blodd spill all over the floor. And I’ve never lost my love of meat.
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I spent some of my “growing up” years in farm country. Seen lots of animals slaughtered. I also hunt and fish. For those of you who don’t, that means I have to clean my own game.
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Somehow my taste for meat has remained intact.
Hooray! I’m not the only rural person around here!
In the end, the moratorium was impractical. But then, I find the people who cry “Drill, baby, drill” to be pretty impractical, as well.
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Unfortunately, more drilling will be necessary one way or the other, because alternative energy solutions aren’t coming fast enough. Or not being pushed hard enough. Take your pick.
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It’s interesting that it would be allowed off Virginia though. I get the feeling most people would readily write off drilling in Alaska because, well, most people don’t give a crap about Alaska.
Or not cost effective enough.
Even if they start drilling tomorrow, there probably won’t be any benefit for another 6 years or so.
What we should be doing is mandating that refinery capacity be increased. i saw on the news that the US hasnt had a major increase in refinery capacity in 30 years.
thats one of the main reasons for the high price.
Actually, this move may play much better than I originally thought, since he’s coupling this action with calls for more energy efficiency, which he’s using national security as a cover for. Certainly the hybrid fighter plane prototype he stood in front of while speaking today was a surprising bit of photo-op. The GOP may yet lose another old talking point over this.
Nah, the Republicans are already criticizing this as not going far enough, KET.
It won’t matter, Craig. If they’re already whining that Obama’s not going far enough, then he’s already won the day.
With the Republicans taking back Congress this fall, alternative energy sources will again take a back seat. Whatever is for the long term better good of the country, the Republicans are against, and will block in any way, shape, or matter that they can. With the Republicans back in power, the drilling was going to have to happen anyway, so why not get a jump start on it.
While that may make a great Beltway narrative for the media to keep promoting, the likelihood of the GOP to gain significantly this fall is still pretty remote. Especially since the Teabaggers are still proving to be an unruly lot for GOP primary success. Couple this with Michael Steele’s latest blunder, and it’s obvious that the Republican Party is still in severe disarray.
And as a Republican and someone who’s attended several Tea Party rallies, I hope all Democrats keep thinking that.
@Jerry Wall – don’t crow victory when the Democrats inevitably lose seats this November. Their current majorities are so huge that they’re unsustainable.
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The only question is how big the loss will be.
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http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/03/can-democrats-win-midterms.html
The more things change, the more they stay the same, I suppose.
Yet more proof that all of Obama’s promises come with expiration dates. The question is never WHETHER Obama will backtrack on a promise, but WHEN.
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While I support this move, I’ve looked at the details. It’s pretty much trivial — not a very substantial change. My suspicion is that there will be an implicit quid pro quo for some absurd “environmental” program like the disastrous Cap and Trade — “hey, I gave you the oil exploration, now give me this one.”
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J.
One problem Obama (who’s otherwise extremely intelligent) is that he seems willing to give away his bargaining chips without the, well, bargaining. Back on the health care debate he jettisoned several elements that were unpopular with Republicans, yet got nothing but “no” votes in return. Now, instead of offering the possibility of VA drilling in return for something else, he simply allowed it with no quid pro quo. I’ve heard several explanations for the Virginia decision (hopefully best: It’ll help with the transition to greener energy sources), but I think that here there would’ve been more room for compromise with conservatives.
One problem Obama (who’s otherwise extremely intelligent)
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Prove it.
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Seriously… the guy comes across as a supreme faker. He’s had all the right jobs, all the right titles, but zero record of accomplishment in any of them. And when he’s off his TelePrompter, he’s hardly a dazzling intellect.
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This oil ploy is a bone he’s tossing the other side not to cajole them, but to give himself some cover for when he tries to steamroll something else over them. As you noted, there was no negotiations, no explicit linkage of the deal to a future concession. And under the law, an unsolicited gift bears no obligation upon the recipient.
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J.
“Zero record of accomplishment”? Really? I refer you to the list here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132×4578207
That’s a total of 823 bills sponsored or co-sponsored by Obama during his time in both the Illinois legislature and the US Senate. One that I recall particularly, because it tickled me at the time, was the Obama-Lugar Bill, an expansion of the Nunn-Lugar bill (which created a program for the US to purchase nuclear weapons, in order to keep them off the black market). The Obama-Lugar bill also authorized the purchase of ground-to-air missile systems, with a particular emphasis on shoulder-fired systems.
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The trade-off system can be seen in Illinois, where he voted for a bill to make driving without a seat belt a primary offense (meaning no other offense need be noted first before stopping the car), in exchange for votes for a program to collate data regarding the race of the drivers stopped for traffic offenses (in order to make sure that the law was not used as an excuse to stop certain drivers more than others).
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As for proof of intellect, will a BA in political science from Columbia, and graduating magna çûm laude from Harvard School of Law (while also serving as first an editor of the Harvard Law Review, then its president), serve as sufficient evidence for you? It certainly impresses me…
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Really, Jay, you need to investigate things for yourself sometimes, not just swallow and regurgitate whatever “talking points” the so-called “conservatives” offer. (What these people have done to honest conservatism in this country is a whole other rant! Suffice it to say that I understand Arizona has replaced all existing power plants with a system to draw power from the spinning in Barry Goldwater’s grave…)
One problem Obama (who’s otherwise extremely intelligent)
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Prove it.
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He doesn’t need someone to write his books with/for him.
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PAD
And when he’s off his TelePrompter, he’s hardly a dazzling intellect.
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Do you really want to continue this BS after 8 years of Mr. “Is Our Children Learning”?
Some literary scholars have studied Obama’s two books, and they’ve found very little stylistic resemblance between his first and second book. On the other hand, there are quite a few similarities in style and tone in “Dreams From My Father” to the works of William Ayers.
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As I said, no one will argue that Bush is not inarticulate. Hëll, at one event he said he knew he was in trouble when Arnold Schwarzenegger was correcting his speech.
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But there are far more forms of intelligence beyond glibness. And while it often goes with intelligence, there’s a Venn Diagram in there that shows that the two are not absolutely conflated nor mutually exclusive. We’ve all known people who were all talk, and we’ve all known people who couldn’t handle words well but were exceptionally intelligent in other areas.
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But back to the point at hand: Obama’s announcement was intended as a shallow sop to the other side, a clumsy trick: “I’ll give you something you like now, play ball with me later.” The only problems were that he didn’t actually make any agreement first, and his “concession” is utterly valueless. Not only did he not get anything for the move, not only is the move utterly without any substance or value, but his own track record for keeping his pledges makes the whole thing a colossal waste of time.
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As well as putting the lie to his inclination towards bipartisanship. There was no communication here; he tried to present a (if you’ll forgive the mixed metaphor) a Trojan fait accompli. “Here’s something that kinda looks like what you want, but not really; give me what I really want.”
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That’s not only not “bipartisan,” it’s fundamentally stupid. It’s insulting to the other side, the side you claim you want to work with, and shows that he’s never once had to deal with actual opposition that has actual principles and beliefs. Chicago is an astonishingly corrupt Democratic machine town, and the “Chicago Way” of politics is to find the right blend of threats and bribes to get the other side to play along. That only works when you have an iron grip on the political machine — and Obama and the Democrats have NEVER had that in DC.
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J.
Democratic Underground, Jonathan? Let me get my shots up to date, and put on the biohazard suit…
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All those bills he sponsored or co-sponsored. Whee, he figured out how to put his name on legislation. How many did he WRITE?
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Degrees? Let’s see his grades. Let’s see his writings from that period. Whoops, they haven’t been released.
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The seat belt law? Feh. Here in New Hampshire, we don’t have a mandatory seat belt law for those 18 and over. We have the radical notion that adults should be treated like adults. If you wanna be an idiot, be an idiot. I’m a seat belt militant — I buckle up backing out of garages — but that’s because I’m not an idiot who needs the government to tell me to protect myself. And if you ride with me, you buckle up. Period.
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Further, Obama’s “compromise” is quite telling. An expansion of police powers coupled with a presumption of racism. The idea of individual choice and personal responsibility is utterly ignored.
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I’ll raise the ante, Jonathan. George W. Bush has a better, more verifiable intellectual credential than any of Obama’s. Bush was a fighter pilot. Bush had to master an extremely difficult aircraft (the F-102 Delta Dagger had a well-earned reputation as a “widow-maker”), and did so.
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Here’s a link to a very substantial essay, but the relevant portion is the one subtitled “War of the Bumper Stickers.”
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http://pajamasmedia.com/ejectejecteject/2006/11/06/seeing-the-unseen-part-1/
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Money quote:
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People like Michael Moore and Bill Maher and Keith Olberman would not be able to figure out how to close the canopy on an F-102. These people would be weeping with fear when those afterburners light up and you barrel down that runway hoping that engine doesn’t flame out and roll you inverted into the asphalt, or when you’re rocketing through the soup at 300mph watching two little needles chase each other, praying the next thing you see out the window is a runway and not a mountain goat.
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George W. Bush is not stupid. It’s not possible to be a moron and fly a supersonic jet fighter, and everyone knows it.
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What George W. Bush is, however, is inarticulate. English is his second language. From what I can see he does not have a first language. Abraham Lincoln spoke in simple frontier language in an age of rhetorical flourish. Like Bush, he was considered a bumpkin and an idiot, and like Bush, he realized that there were times when having people misunderestimate you repeatedly was a real advantage. That’s goal-oriented. That’s playing the deep game. That’s cunning.
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Obama is the mirror universe Bush (sans beard). He’s exceptionally articulate, especially when he has a prepared speech. But that’s where it ends. Prior to his run for the presidency, he had faced real adversity in his life exactly once — when he got schooled in his first run for Congress and lost to Bobby Rush.
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Oh, and even more details are emerging from his announcement on this oil exploration. He’s authorizing the government to STUDY the POSSIBILITY of opening some areas for EXPLORATION. That means that actual drilling is many years away, with many intermediate steps — which can be walked back at any point, just like so, so many other of Obama’s promises. Obama’s announcement was meaningless.
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But darn, didn’t it sound good? Wasn’t he so clean and articulate, free of any Negro dialect?
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(Sorry, just quoting Joe Biden and Harry Reid there.)
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J.
Actually, Abraham Lincoln was a master of rhetorical flourish disguised as simple frontier language. Much like Mark Twain. Bush, sadly, attempted to do the same, but never succeeded. As you say, this does not make him stupid. Even his stupid policies do not make him stupid. But they did make him a lousy president.
Obama seems quite intelligent to me, but so far he doesn’t seem to be a very good president either. (Although he does seem better than Bush, so far.) But intelligence, as usually measured does not seem to have that much to do with success in Government. The most intelligent presidents of my lifetime were probably Nixon and Carter, both widely considered failures, although for different reasons. Woodrow Wilson was possibly one of the most intelligent presidents ever, but he probably brought the country the closest to a Fascist dictatorship that it’s ever been.
Intelligence is one aspect of leadership by by no means the only one. It could even be argued (and your examples bear this out) that it is not the most important aspect. Of course, this depends on the task at hand. In the heat of battle decisiveness may be far more important than intelligence; while lack of brilliance may cost you some battles lack of decisiveness will cost you most.
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it would be interesting to be able to see and actual intelligence profile of all the presidents, though such things are to be taken with a grain of salt (and attempts to estimate intelligence sans tests are scarcely worth the paper they are printed on).
If it’s any consolation, it appears that only red states’ coastlines would be redecorated.
Kind of like how 9/11 only targeted blue states, huh, Sasha?
Or how Katrina did its worst in a blue state?
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Take that attitude and cram it. There’s a point when you go beyond politics. Taking comfort in a major disaster only hitting your political opponents is about seven steps beyond the line.
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J.
I take it you’re not very familiar with the concept of “tongue in cheek”.
Oh, rather familiar. Are you familiar with the concept of good taste?
There are limits, Sasha. You crossed it.
J.
There are limits, Sasha. You crossed it.
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When Opinions Become Fact by Jay Tea.
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On sale soon. Won’t be a bestseller.
No. Sasha did not cross it. IF there actually HAD been a disaster and Sasha said, “All is going according to plan,” THEN it would have been over the line.
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And frankly, considering some of the anti-blue state, anti-Democratic, anti-Obama, anti-Liberal claptrap we’ve heard from the right in recent years, I’m not sure there’s much of a line anymore. But if there is, Sasha was definitely on the correct side of it.
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PAD
Jay,
Chill out. You are getting WAY too worked up over nothing. Pick your battles. This one with Sasha is not worth fighting. relax.
Good point, Jerome. Now that we’ve had a chance to really look at what Obama’s announcement really says, it’s clear that he was — as usual — BSing.
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1) It closed off many areas of known oil reserves.
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2) It authorized studies of allowing exploration that might lead to drilling several years down the road in places of questionable oil resources.
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In brief, Obama’s “change” in policy merely codified what we already knew: he opposed foreign oil, increased domestic oil, increased nuclear power, increased wind power (the windmills clutter up limousine liberals’ beachfront views and might hurt birds), increased hydroelectric power (dams are bad, mkay?), and thinks that if he talks long enough, some magical new form of energy will appear and make everything better.
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So Virginia beaches are safe. Just don’t ask how you’ll get the energy to go there.
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J.
So Virginia beaches are safe. Just don’t ask how you’ll get the energy to go there.
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As opposed to the “Drill Baby Drill” or bust policy of the GOP, where other options, such as nuclear and wind power, aren’t even on the table.
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Maybe if the GOP wasn’t being lead with carrot and stick by the oil industry…
“Maybe if the GOP wasn’t being lead with carrot and stick by the oil industry.”
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It’s “led”, not “lead”.
Too bad the GOP isn’t led free.
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PAD
PAD,
“Too bad the GOP isn’t led free.”
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I don’t know. The media – even Fox – keeps on harping on how they don’t seem to have a single leader. But the fact that you can’t point to one “leader” and that incumbents like McCain. Specter (oops! He’s a Democrat now? More like a perpetual opportunist) and Crist are having their feet held to the fire is a GOOD thing. NO ONE should just waltz to re-election. EVERYONE should have to answer tough questions. Our democratic republic is a lot healthier when that happens.
Micro-analyzing a lame attempt at a pun is really a waste of time. Just saying.
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PAD
Especially a PAD pun. There are so many.
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On the other hand, PAD puns could be considered a constantly-renewing resource…
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What’s a pun’s carbon footprint?
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J.