Same Old Drill

Barack is shrewd to do change his stance on offshore drilling. The question is why anyone would be confused about what he's up to.

Sen. Barack Obama said Saturday he is simply acting pragmatically in softening his opposition to additional oil drilling along the nation's coastline, a shift Republicans say shows he is calculating and out of touch with voters.

Speaking in Florida, Obama insisted he still generally opposes additional drilling—as his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, once did as well—but would be willing to support it as part of a new bipartisan energy proposal that seeks to lessen dependence on foreign oil.

75% of Americans are in favor of drilling now to help alleviate the gas price crisis. Come voting time in November, folks will be very concerned about the cost of heating their homes this winter.

"If we can come up with a genuine bipartisan compromise, in which I have to accept some things that I don't like, or the Democrats have to accept some things that they don't like in exchange for actually moving us in the direction of actual energy independence, then that's something I'm open to," the Illinois Democrat said.

The nature of legislative compromise is that there are very few things that are entirely non-negotiable. Barack has opened to door to making a claim later that, "I've always said that drilling was on the table," when, in fact, that will be a misrepresentation.

Oil drilling, a hot topic in Florida, has been a point of dispute between Obama and McCain in recent weeks.

Will this drill work again? Sure, why not? It worked on Iraq.