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Obama Willing to Compromise on Offshore Drilling |
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Obama must be trying to match McCain flip for flop. Throughout the campaign, Obama has criticized his opponents for supporting offshore drilling. But as of Friday, he’s suddenly ready to allow more drilling as long as it is part of a larger compromise to lower energy costs. Here’s what he promised voters in Jacksonville in late June:
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.
He was just as firm at a campaign stop in Iowa earlier this week:
(Offshore drilling) is a strategy designed to get politicians through an election. It’s not going to provide short-term relief or medium-term relief or in fact long-term relief. It won’t drop prices in this administration or in the next administration or in the administration after that.
But then, just this morning, Obama had this to say to the The Palm Beach Post:
My interest is in making sure we’ve got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices. 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.
The Republicans and the oil companies have been really beating the drums on drilling, and so we don’t want gridlock. We want to get something done.
For progressives who are already fuming about the FISA compromise, this reversal on drilling raises even more alarms. Will Obama say anything to get elected? How far is his move to the center going to go? Is he going to abandon his plan for universal health care? Is he going to start rethinking his position on Iraq? Is he going to name Joe Lieberman as his running mate?
Meanwhile, all we hear about in the mainstream media are non-issues such as Britney Spears and race-baiting. I had so much hope for this election, but I have a feeling that it’s just going to drive me back to cynicism and disillusionment.
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