Obama is going to get his ass kicked on this one.
Which is exactly the idea.
Sometimes you play to win, and sometimes you play to lose.
By losing on the supposed "policy," Obama will win the political gambit, which is the real game being played here. After all, does anyone seriously think any tree-hugger is ever going to vote for the party of Dick Cheney, George Bush, Sarah Palin or Mitt Romney? Not going to happen. Ever.
And so there is nothing to lose, but perhaps some "moderates" to gain.
By launching his own incompleted play to "drill, baby drill," Obama hopes to remove a GOP talking point from the table and gain some ground from the center.
Will that work?
No, but it's a play with very little downside for him since NEPA and and EIS requirements associated with coastal drilling, and the court challenges that these will spawn, will likely take longer to process than his administration will actually be in office.
Just in case, however, the Obama Administration is exempting California from drilling. Memories of the Santa Barbara Oilspill, more than 40 years ago, still stain the collective memory of too many voters in that state, and there are simply too many electoral college votes there to take the risk. A good political player always hedges his bets a little....
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5 comments:
It will be interesting to see how long this remains in the news cycle. If it's a short trip, we'll know there's little GOP hay to be made.
Seahorse
Read both statements from NRDC and the Sierra Club (both of which I belong to) on Daily Kos. They said what they needed to say to keep the troops from having coniptions, but I'll bet they knew this was coming. If NRDC doesn't start filing lawsuits, then I'd say it was a sure thing.
I'm not thrilled, remembering the Santa Barbara spill myself, but frankly, after seeing photos of the damage to the Green River area of Wyoming, if they can extract oil from platforms without an accident, it could definitely be the lesser of two evils.
He may also know that, with all the unused leases the oil companies already have and the s--t storms that will happen when they try to set up shop in any specific location, that ain't nothin' gonna happen soon, if ever.
This should finish off any ideas anyone has that Obama's a leftist ideologue.
I don't see any downside for Obama on this one and I'm a pretty rabid treehugger. I actually trust that he knows what he's doing and has the country's best interests, long term, at heart. And I haven't felt that way about a President for quite a while now. We shall see.
sfox, your last paragraph sums up my feelings, too, and yet as much as I feel this way, I still worry that I don't become blinded and as dumb ass as the tea baggers. How can we really know until it's all over? We can't, so in the interim I'm going to trust smart over stoopid, which is what I feel we had in the previous administration.
I also think it's interesting that this story seems to have lost press traction already. If the GOP felt they could make hay with it, they'd use it to deflect the attention away from their funds being spent in voyeuristic bondage clubs. Remember, it's NOT a strip club, LOL.
Seahorse
I wish I was doing press for the GOP on the bondage club story. I could explain it all away.
"A tragic mistake. You see Jethro told the cabbie we wanted to go to a Thai Restaurant, and he misunderstood and took us to "Bound to Please," which is a TIED restaurant featuring bondage. We had no idea, as the performance acts did not start until our meal had already arrived...."
"A tragic mistake. You see Jethro told the cabbie we wanted to go to the Bass Masters show at the convention center and he misunderstood and took us to 'Ass Masters' show instead. We had no idea what was going on as it was very dark, and the place did smell like old bait....."
P
Oh dear, LOL, Patrick! I could riff on your "piece" all day, but I still have one (very!) living parent, so, maybe I won't, LOL. Suffice it to say, I'm chortling plenty...to myself!
Seahorse
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