Thursday, July 17, 2008

Finally Driving The Truck

McCain and the Republicans have finally found an issue — oil drilling — exposing
how the Democrats oppose drilling virtually anywhere that there might be
recoverable oil. Not in Alaska. Not offshore. Not in shale deposits in the West.
The Democratic claim that we "cannot drill our way out of the crisis in gas
prices" begs the question of whether, had we drilled five years ago, we would be
a lot less dependent on foreign market fluctuations.

The truth is that
the Democrats put the need to mitigate climate change ahead of the imperative of
holding down gasoline prices at the pump. If there was ever a fault line between
elitist and populist approaches to a problem, this is it. In fact, liberals
basically don't see much wrong with $5 gas. Many have been urging a tax to
achieve precisely this level, just like Europe has done for
decades.

Obama said that he was unhappy that there was not a period of
"gradual adjustment" to the high prices, but seems to shed few tears over the
current levels.