Kerry response to Bush offshore drilling lunacy

[MBS]

Great statement. Thanks, JK!

“Today President Bush dusted off the worst of the Cheney special interest giveaways that have created record profits for big oil and a 250% increase in gas prices for consumers these last seven years. Selling off our nation’s coastlines to the oil and gas companies won’t make a dent in gas prices. If you started drilling tomorrow, you wouldn’t even see a drop of oil until 2017. President Bush and his new ally John McCain should use a little straight talk and explain why we’re even having this debate when the oil industry has 68 million acres available today that they aren’t developing. This is a fraud of a policy and a false choice. Rather than doing the bidding of the oil companies, we need a serious long-term energy strategy that reduces our dependence on oil and promotes affordable clean energy sources to address the urgent threat of climate change and help consumers.”

[whometense]

1. And on McCains possibly insane idea to

encourage offshore drilling, here's John Dickerson in Slate: http://www.slate.com/id/2193749/

The energy plan was supposed to showcase both McCain's boldness in facing hard problems and his party-challenging, solutions-oriented approach. An ad released along with the kickoff speech heralded the fight McCain had with his party five years ago over whether to confront the challenges of global warming. (Did I mention that today was supposed to be about being bold?) Instead, critics won ammunition for a line of attack they've been pushing for the last year and a half. "I think John McCain has exhibited the ongoing debate in his own campaign between John McCain and John McCain," said John Kerry, no doubt relishing the chance to tar a Republican with the brush that killed him. "You don't know what he means on torture, taxes, tolerance of Jerry Falwell, changed on drilling. … Here you have a flip-flop by John McCain, flipping to the right and then flipping backward."

I don't know if JK relished saying that (though I imagine he did), but I sure relished hearing it.


Edited to add that there are other Kerry mentions in the article, and it's worth a read.

There's a risk here, too, though: John Kerry reeled off a pretty good list of McCain reversals. You can add McCain's evolution on issues like the estate tax—or the snafus that come from his fatigue, his light familiarity with new policy details, and the probability that when you talk all day long to reporters, you're going to slip up sometimes. At some point, the list of slip-sliding becomes too long for voters. They'll no longer buy the argument that they should overlook McCain's inconsistencies because they can trust him in the end to do the principled and honest thing. Voters consistently tell pollsters they want change, which means they want politicians who do business differently. People may not stick around long enough to hear McCain's energy-plan details if Barack Obama can make his opponent's drilling proposal look like a business-as-usual sop to oil companies.

[YvonneCa]

2. I sent this via cnn.com...

...after hearing the story introduced as "The president changes his energy policy. Stay tuned to see what he plans to do about high gas prices." (paraphrasing)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

In 2004, the media spin was part of the reason John Kerry did not win the White House. It's happening again. Example:

Issue#1 program this morning lead off with a story about George Bush 'changing his position' on his energy policy. The actual story was about how he wants offshore drilling.

Anyone who really thinks that is a change in his policy should be FIRED. How is it a change when a former oil man from Texas, always pro-fossil fuel policy, starts pushing to drill for oil off the coast? Bush wants to drill everywhere.

This has ALWAYS been Bush's policy...there is no change. And for CNN to spin it as a 'change' is just ridiculous! As a Californian who understands the implications of off-shore drilling, I am infuriated...as usual by the president... but now equally by CNN.

Your duty is to tell the story in an unbiased way. Not to do so during a presidential election season is unconscionable.

Shame on you.


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I am also happy to say my recently-politically-active daughter was so ticked about off-shore drilling that she e-mailed the White House directly. (Not that Bush would ever care.) I'm so proud of her! :)