You have to respect Barack for one thing - he's learned from the mistakes of John Kerry, who was frozen in fear four years ago over accusations of being a flip-flopper. Barack gets the crap kicked out of him for just one week and he's flipping positions like they're tofu burgers on the grill in the yard that his felonious fund raiser's wife bought for him.
In early July, Barack said this:"I do not believe that we should use this strategic oil reserves at this point," he said on July 7 in St. Louis. "...But the strategic oil reserve I think has to be reserved for a genuine emergency."
Today he said this:"We should sell 70 million barrels of oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve for less expensive crude, which in the past has lowered gas prices within two weeks."
Just a few days ago, Barack changed his position on offshore drilling.Sen. Barack Obama on Friday suggested he could support an energy package that would allow some offshore drilling, a shift from his previous opposition to lifting the congressional ban on such activity. In its lead story, the CBS Evening News reported last night that "critics" say the move is opening Obama "to charges of flip-flopping," and his "new stance could give" Sen. John McCain "fresh ammunition" to continue to hammer at him.
Proving once again that in Barack's eyes, any position that matches up with the polls is a good position, The One has now expanded his flip flop on the oil crisis. Last week, he backed off of his opposition to offshore drilling. Today...Democrat Barack Obama called today for tapping the nation's strategic oil reserves to help drive down gasoline prices, a shift from his previous position on the issue.
The reversal is the second refinement in Obama's energy policy. Last week, he said that he would reluctantly consider accepting some offshore oil drilling. Obama had previously said he opposed such drilling, which is strongly backed by rival John McCain, who has urged that states be allowed to decide whether to drill.
Losing ground to McCain on the issues, Barack has now adopted McCain's positions, even while arguing that McCain holds the wrong positions! Oh, this Obama is a slippery character.In his speech at Michigan State University, Obama, who celebrates his 47th birthday today, tipped his hat to McCain, quoting the Arizona Republican: "Our dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been 30 years in the making and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington to think long-term about the future of the country," Obama said.
"What Sen. McCain neglected to mention was that during those 30 years, he was in Washington for 26 of them," Obama said.
And remember when, during primary season, Barack attacked McCain's gas tax rollback proposal as a gimmick? Barack now supports the gimmicks of tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserves and a Windfall Profits Tax, both of which may sound good to voters, but would have no positive effect on the price of oil.
To learn why, read this:Tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is an energy solution for politicians who are not serious about real energy solutions, but H.R 6578 seeks to do just that.
And this:...according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), is that the 1980s windfall profits tax depressed the domestic production and extraction industry and furthered our dependence on foreign sources of oil.1
