Political Punch

Why don't we put a ban on oil exports.

Nobody except the oil companies (and politicians heavily invested in the oil companies) benefit from oil exports.

In 10 years, once the offshore oil rig is actually operational, it will yield 200,000 barrels a day.

However, we export 1.8 million barrels of oil a day. So... if the idea is to lower dependence on middle eastern oil, why don't we keep our own and use it!

Maybe because that's not what the agenda is. The problem is, oil exports make more money than the sale of oil stateside.

Why would we need to drill offshore for 200,000 barrels a day in 10 years, if we can keep 1.8 million barrels in the country every day now?

hm?

I am so exasperated. Doesn't anyone remember why off shore drilling was banned in the 70s?

Do you really want a lot of people punching holes in a fragile continental shelf off the cost of California? I'm sure there are other places like in the bay of Mexico but really off the coast of California? Everyone knows that shelf is not stable and yet nobody is saying a word about it. If the worst happens what are you gonna say ..Opps?

Or do you just not care that it increases the possibility for dissaster? But hey less demand right?

TE? Obama DID say inflating tires was a replacement for drilling. I heard him. So did everyone else. It's like Obama claiming McCain supports Bush's energy policy and tax breaks for oil companies when Obama voted FOR the Bush bill and McCain voted against it. Honestly, I have no idea how Obama folks can tell outright untruths so often, with such conviction.

Sir, you failed to mention that Obama said inflating our tires and tuning our engines would TAKE THE PLACE OF ALL NEW DRILLING. That is why folks are laughing their heads off....Something I'm noticing about the Obama folks and Obama himself. No sense of humor. None. McCain and his folks thought the Paris Hilton ad was a stitch (besides, she supports McCain's energy policy). Obama seems to have the self-effacement displayed by Richard Nixon. Just think. Richard Nixon's personality and Jimmry Carter's foreign and economic policies!

Correction: McCain dealt with Rove tactics during the 2000 campaign, certainly not during 2004 when there were no Republicans running against Bush. It has been established that Rove himself was behind the South Carolina smear tactics with Bridget, the McCains' adoptive daughter from Mother Theresa's orphanage who had a seriously deformed cleft palate. She was presented as a part black illegitimate daughter. Now the McCain camp has Rove as an "informal advisor" and some of his operatives running the show. It's chilling how hell bent McCain is on winning. Intellectual dishonesty as a descriptive doesn't do the situation justice.

I think you might be reading too much into this.

The Republicans need continued support from Oil based industries. They are trying to depart with a gift of off shore drilling and stable consumption levels. Period.

We don't need to shift dependence on foreign oil to dependence on domestic oil.
We need to delete dependence on any oil, one percent at a time.

Awareness measures like Obama's gage/tuneup comment are powerful, and the Republicans know and fear it. My gosh, these guys faked us into a war over oil!

Notice oil price is going down latey? That's because everyone is checking their gages, tuning up, commuting in groups, telecommuting, reducing trips, choosing alternates, just to name a few. Consumption is dropping, price too.

Republicans want that trend stopped; they think consumption levels can be maintained and create a price drop, thereby retaining more control in the future, thus the tactic.
Their economics are faulty, the grandstanding is shallow. Why keep oil at production at current levels when we know we don't need it?

JPT, I think you fell for the distraction.

The only way McCain can win is by adopting Karl Rove attack-dog tactics, defaming the character of anyone who opposes him, lying and distorting, and generally distracting the electorate from the issues. He loses on all the issues (Iraq, economy, energy, environment ...). So, we better get used to a very nasty Republican offensive every few days until this election is over.

A debate between Primary Obama and Election Obama would be even more interesting

McCain '08, are you serious. McCain said he wouldn't even vote for his own bill. How is that not a major reversal. He reversed himself on drilling, he reversed himself on the Bush tax cuts. You don't see these reversals, because you don't want to see them. Stevie Wonder could see them.

THE WORST PART OF MCBUSHS "TIRE INFLATION" SCHEME......IS HE INSULTS OUR INTELLIGENCE. SUGGESTS THAT AMERICANS BELIEVE THIS IS OBAMA'S COMPLETE PLAN.....HE HAS INSULTED ME!

"McCain has shown himself wanting to win at any cost."

I don't see him reversing on major positions. Unlike Obama.

Obama is comfortable using the same tactics as every other politician, what he is not comfortable with is getting called on it.

McCain has shown himself wanting to win at any cost. It's no secret that Karl Rove is an "informal adviser" and that his proteges are active on his campaign. He and his family were certainly treated cruelly by Rovian tactics in 2000 and 2004. There were apparently no scruples in presenting his wife as chattel to a horde of bikers last week. McCain has gone well beyond "intellectual dishonesty" and into the Faustian. He's on the Hell Express, not the Straight Talk one.

McCain said it from the get go that this economics thing is not his game so why are you surprised. Have you forgotten how republicans mocked Obama when he said we need to start conserving our a/c and SUV use. Thats economics 101, hypocrites. Your ability to choose between wants and needs.

> It's about what tactics the candidate is comfortable using.

Agree.

How much insolence and sense of entitlement does the candidate have if he placed 894th out of 899 at the naval academy?

Would that same insolence and sense of entitlement serve him well now, while he makes tactical choices in front of the whole country?

McCain doesn't want any air in the tires on which a discussion of the issues deciding the future of our country turn. He knows that the Republicans have broken through the rubber and been running on the rims for several years now. So, if his opponent tries to make a sensible point, however positioned it may be as only a partial answer, the corrupted McCain, these long decades separated from his heroic sojourn in the Hanoi Hilton, must ridicule any movement toward policies that would follow a rational path and use common sense to pull the nation away from his own party's calamities.

Mr. Tapper,

McCain is clearly comfortable using the tactic of lying. He did so when claiming Obama refused to visit troops overseas and again while attacking Obama's suggestion to improve mileage by inflating tires. He's proven he'll lie about anything --until he gets busted.

Only after Triple-A, NASCAR, and others publicly said Obama was right and McCain wrong about inflating tires did he flip-flop. Remember Bush's tax cuts, amnesty for illegals, drilling, etc., etc. --it's McCain's entire flip-floppin' career in a nutshell.

The amount of energy we would save by keeping our tires properly inflated is more than the most optimistic estimates (read: George Bush's) of what we'd get from drilling in the long term (decades from now).

That's the debate between John McCain and John McCain:

Reducing our demand by X barrels of oil a day will not help us achieve energy independence, while adding Y barrels of oil to our supply will. But X > Y.

American Observer said: "Net net, inflating tires won't replace drilling, not even close."

Well that test would be in opposition to the EIA, the NHSTA, AAA and NASCAR to name the majority of those who say inflating tires helps. But the point was never replacing drilling, it was what individuals can do to save fuel and this was a patial answer in addition to keeping your engine propery tuned. Like so many other dittoheads, you believe that this is the sole policy of the Obama Energy Plan. Unfortunately for you and McCain, it isn't. Read and learn.

trusthesky said: "Barack Obama is actually very immature when he pokes fun at people. Remember when he teased Hillary Clinton for trying to be an 'Annie Oakley'?"

Immature? I thought it was very astute of him to reference someone OLD people would remember.