9/11

Obama:

And I think in terms of the United States, there was just this outpouring - you remember, people wanted to do something, and, you know, George Bush asked them to shop, and if we had instead said, ‘You know what, we are going to reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern oil,’ or, you know, ‘We are going to create the kinds of energy-efficient economy that will allow us to weaken the forces of terror,’ that could have made an incredible difference and I think you could have mobilized the American people around bold plans on energy that would make sure that we weren’t continuing to be in the situation we’re in today.”

But that didn't happen. The oil industry--free market think tank--GOP trifecta told us it'd all be too expensive for us to change our ways and even if we did, it'd not make a bit of difference because the Chinese would use up our oil. How that translated into wastefulness = patriotism is somewhat nebulous. But that's what gave us years of excessive oil company profits, government corruption--where officials stole taxpayer money--a glorious war in Iraq, and increased demand leading to us never seeing less than $100 a barrel oil again. I sure am glad we didn't spend the money on efficiency now, aren't you?

And after all that, what does the GOP have to offer us now? DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW! DRILL, DRILL, DRILL! DRILL BABY, DRILL! The thing is, they know that this is a bait-and-switch tactic. The best place to get to quick oil would be the eastern Gulf of Mexico, off the Florida shore. But they're not going to drill there--or if they do it won't be very much--since their own constituents will fight it in court. And win! Then they can go back and blame it all on the evil environmentalists, drill a few more holes out west in places no one can see the rigs, and that'll be that. When it comes to expanded domestic drilling, it'll happen on a limited basis no matter who is President next.

But just like George W. Bush seemed like he might be a reasonable kinda guy when it came to energy and environmental issues while he was running for office, John McCain will have to give in to the do-nothing-do-we-can-profit crowd. No one can be a maverick when they need party unity to get things done.

It's the energy, stupid.