 | Barack Obama Vs. Barack Obama on Offshore Drilling |
Yesterday, Barack Obama announced that he would support the expansion of oil drilling in the coastal waters of the United States. Obama’s new support for offshore drilling comes as a direct contradiction to the promise he made just 42 days ago.
Standing in Jacksonville, Florida on June 20, Barack Obama said, “When I am President, I intend to keep in place the moratorium, here in Florida and around the country.”
How will Barack Obama be able to keep in place the moratorium on offshore drilling as President when he’s helping to destroy that moratorium now as a United States Senator?
Below is the rest of what Barack Obama said about offshore drilling on that day in Jacksonville, and a video of Obama’s statement, so that you can confirm that this transcript is accurate.
In this statement, Barack Obama blasts John McCain for abandoning his earlier opposition to offshore drilling. Now, Barack Obama is doing exact the same thing (in the parlance of 2004, we would have to call that a flip flop). I wonder what the Barack Obama of June 20 would say to the Barack Obama of August 1. Would he be as severe against himself as he was against John McCain, or would he just look the other way and whistle?
Barack Obama, Jacksonville, Florida, June 20, 2008:
“In what’s become a bit of a regular occurrence in this campaign, Senator McCain once had a different position on offshore drilling, and it’s clear why he did. It would have long-term consequences for our coastlines, but no short term benefits, since it would take at least ten years to get any oil.
Well, the politics may have changed, but the facts haven’t. The accuracy of Senator McCain’s original position has not changed. Offshore drilling would not lower gas prices today. It would not lower gas prices tomorrow. It would not lower gas prices this year. It would not lower gas prices five years from now.
In fact, President Bush’s own Energy Department says that we won’t see a drop of oil from his own proposal until 2017, and in fact, you wouldn’t see any full production out of any oil drilling off the coast until 2030. It will take a generation to reach full production, and even then the effect on gas prices will be minimal, at best.
So, let me just repeat: John McCain’s proposal, George Bush’s proposal to drill offshore here in Florida and other places around the country would not provide families with any relief this year, next year, five years from now. Believe me, if I thought there was any evidence at all that drilling could save people money who are struggling to fill up their gas tanks by this summer or the next year or even the next few years, I would consider it, but it won’t, and John McCain knows that.
The fact is, Senator McCain’s decision to team up with George Bush on offshore drilling violates the bipartisan consensus that we have had for decades that has protected Florida’s pristine coastline from drilling.”
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Just another group he dumped and igorned just to get elected. He just handed the Repubs the election. He shot the progressives and he shot the eviromentalists…whose next?
Comment by Luv in Ca — 8/2/2008 @ 12:03 pm
“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. … corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”
— U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins) Ref: “The Lincoln Encyclopedia”, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)
Comment by Tom — 8/2/2008 @ 12:31 pm
I take Luv’s comment with a grain of salt, considering Luv’s decision to vote for John McCain in November, which would, um, pretty much “hand the Repubs the election.”
Comment by Jim — 8/2/2008 @ 12:45 pm
Well, you can take my comment, then, Jim. I’m profoundly concerned - not that Barack Obama won’t get elected, but that he will finish the job of remaking the Democratic Party as the political Party of the Near Right, concerned mostly with siphoning off Republican voters, while presuming that progressives won’t have any choice but to vote for Democrats as the lesser of two evils.
Obama is turning his back on progressive values - and it’s not just a one-issue problem.
Comment by J. Clifford — 8/2/2008 @ 1:34 pm
I don’t think that Obama is changing his position should be suprising. In fact, I think Obama got a bit out-smarted on this one.
You see, McCain staked out aposition that he supported oil drilling, if the STATES supported oil drilling.
If Obama opposes, then he is (as the potential head of the federal government) telling the states they can’t do something, even when the states themselves are supportive. No president wants to be in a position of opposing the will of the states, and McCain crafted his position to say “Let the states decide”.
Obama’s stance was a losing position to take, and so McCain ended up forcing Obama to change.
What’s surprising is the issue played out this way, and makes me wonder if Obama has the political experience to know when he’s fighting a losing battle. By not carefully defining his position before hand, he wound up looking weak.
Comment by mccainridge — 8/3/2008 @ 1:37 am
No, I don’t buy that argument. Here’s why - offshore oil drilling is a highly objectionable thing to the majority of Americans who are likely to vote for Obama. Americans - Republican or Democrat - don’t at all mind the federal government from stepping in to prevent the states from doing something objectionable.
States rights really isn’t all that popular as an issue unto itself, even among Republicans - witness the way that they’re happy to support efforts to create a national ban on marriage equality, instead of letting the states decide.
Comment by J. Clifford — 8/3/2008 @ 7:54 am
F- - - - - racist
Comment by Michelle — 9/30/2008 @ 1:58 am