Oh lawd. That man is pissing me right off.

Yeah, we keep forgetting that Obama is a product of the Chicago political machine.

As opposed to McCain, who's the product of some broken time machine

We won't support spine-less NO-Bama and will re-defeat him in November!!!

Tune into McCain's program. It's on right after Amos n' Andy.

Let me see - Obama who would keep oil drilling out of wetlands and marine sanctuaries and off coasts by 50 miles ...

Or McCain/Bush 08 who will drill right in front of your house in the national park and laugh in your face.

I'm going with option 1, thanks.

I am disappointed, but hey, it's politics...this is one time I'd hope to see a candidate that I am rooting for to renege on his campaign promises.

I'll ask Ellen Pompeo and the cast of Grey's Anatomy what they think about this at their fundraiser for Obama, k?

(frickin America-hating neocons trying to fake us out ... go back to Russia!)

thanks. posted this at 3 am this morning.

the point isn't gee do we adore Obama or gee do we sorn him. the point is how do we work together to help him win.

i suggest yet again adulating him is not helpful in this process.

i would prefer an all out attack on evil oil companies ripping us off tying us to middle eastern oil getting us into wards hurting our national security but hey, if his folks say he has to pander on offshore drilling, gee i don't like it but you know i know he's just trying to win.

9btw, and water under that bridge: all this hoopla about how hrc was so old style corrupt etc. and he was so new style was just a bunch of blarney, right?)

i hope he finds a better way to connect with swing voters named bubba and mildred in the swing states cuz look it up on ral clear this is a dead heat in states like va co oh and even in michigan where obama should be 20 points ahead it's only a 4 or 5 ponit lead.

i hope he hits the economimy hard.

i hope he just doesn't come out with policy blah blah he has to say that the gop is out to wreck your economy, ms. swing voter, with wrecking our nation with debt giving hand outs to big corps etc. tying us to foreign oil and define them and their ilk as the problem.

i hope he picks hrc because, fact, she actually raises his percentages in the polls and the other vp choices do not do that.

kaine what a joke 1st termer evan bayh the third what a joke a scion of the bayh dynasty -- his name isn't even evan it's birch evans bayh III he has two last names, boy that really says change right? picking as vp a guy who got into office cuz his daddy was a dc insider senator

i hope obama gets the grass roots thing going better

i just called 411 to callhis campaign office right here in seattle and get a yard sign and guess what

411 couldn't find his phone number

then i found it all on his web site--his seattle office -- i call up and no one is there!

and it's not his office it's the democratic coordinated campaign.

WTF???? they don't work saturdays?

then i finally found on his web site i can order a yard sign for $8......

now i haven't compared to mccain org. here i do know he lists a nv office as his washington state office pretty lame right?

but you'd think that the obama team would have a fucking office in fucking seattle that's fucking open on a weekend. like full of people to answer the phone and upsell me from taking a yard sign to going to register voters somewhere or coming in to volunteer on database or getting me on a bus to work in MT where if half the seattleites who love OBama would go spend one weekend each, we could win that state.

btw is you want to compromise on offshore you (a) say you ppose it in the election and harness all that enviro energy, clear difference etc. then (b) you compromise when you are actually bargaining with the last stupid fucking senators you need for hte overall energy program you do not announce in advance that you will compromise

gee i go to buy a house and i tell them in advance my final highest price

duh not a good negotiating tactic

obviously next wek he will say he loves nuclear power but only under the most stringent safeguards etc. etc.

That's outrageous! How can he say he is willing to agree to a plan that achieves his overall goals at the cost of accepting "some things in there that I don't like...because that's the nature of how we govern in a democracy."

What the fuck?

I thought we were getting a rigid ideologue who would never accept one iota of compromise! That's it. I mean it. That's it. I've had it with this guy. I'm switching back to Dennis Kucinich. Or Nader. Is Nader on the ballot? I want my Nader because I want no part of this compromise shit. My way or the highway baby!

Nader 2008! All the way to the White House!

PS: unPC, you are a retarded white supremacist, and nobody reads your shit because it is boring and wrong and never even fucking funny. Kill yourself.

Jeez, Dan, don't call McCain a cracker. That's an insult to crackers everywhere. This one included.

Hello people he IS trying to get ELECTED

So he says he'd consider it as part of a larger plan that would include green initiatives - what's wrong with that?

Isn't the whole bitch about Bush is that he won't consider any option beyond the GOP talking points?

The heart of the whole FISA flap and this one is to take away those very same GOP talking points that work with the low information voters which decide these elections.

American liberal electorate give Barack Obama can of Rize, Barack Obama drink Rize, freak out, sell out, BARACK OBAMA 2008 BECOME BILL CLINTON 1992!

2008 DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE WILL FUCK OVER CONSTITUENCY ONCE ELECTED!

And no, I don't feel like letting it go.

The gas tax "holiday" (which was a bad, short-term idea) and offshore drilling (which is an excellent idea) are two very different issues.

I for one have had it with these useless bans on offshore drilling. This is getting silly. The bans should be lifted, and Pelosi or anyone else standing in the way should be arrested and charged with treason.

Or the oil companies should just ignore the government and set up shop. I hate to sound like Dr. Strangelove but our energy supply is too important to be left to the politicians.

@14

Geeze, jeff, why even bother with the formality of arresting Pelosi, or charging her? Like you said, this is too important, right?

And remember when Obama dissed Hillary's gas tax holiday proposal as a tax cut for oil companies ... conveniently ignoring the windfall profits tax component (as well as NEBR's empirical analysis indicating that the Illinois tax holiday actually worked)?

Transcript of a couple of BO08 economists dancing around it here.

And Obama himself dancing around his own incomprehension of applicable economic theory, classic or otherwise, here:

Classic economic theory says you don't meddle in the markets. ... But in the short term, the notion that oil companies that have been making record profits, hand over fist, can't give a little bit of that back ... I don't think that's too much to ask.

You can be right - and lose.

Or you can do what's best for America - and win.

Any questions?

Meanwhile, McCain/Bush 08 is inspecting your laptops contrary to our Constitution.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW!
Obama only said he’s not rigid on this position.

I thought we were through with that “Obama doesn’t support exactly what I want at 100%” FISA type pantie twisting bullshit.

The opponant is McSame! Don't forget it.

If it's part of a comprehensive plan that eventually gets us off foreign oil, who cares? Jesus. Purity, people, is not necessarily a good thing.

Obama is treating the public with way, way too much respect here. Being willing to compromise on a policy that he thinks is a bad idea? Allowing that less drilling is better than more? Suggesting that, if the Republicans think drilling and oil are the most important topic ever, then maybe we can let them do it on a small scale and see how it goes?

Nah. Liberal idealogues are just as one dimensional as conservatives. At this rate, Obama will only be palatable to pragmatists and empiricists. Maybe 5% of the population.

On the one hand, Those of us old enough to remember what a disaster Santa Barbara was in 1969 understand why off-shore drilling can be bad.

On the other hand, most of this country isn't bright enough to remember such things, or were never taught about it in school. Any politician has to take that into account.

Willingness to compromise is a good trait in a leader.

As long as a democrat wins who cares if the oil companies drill off every coast and their already record profits continue to grow?

What difference does it make if the government continues to operate in all out paranoid / unconstitutional surveillance mode and we threaten Iraq and build the war in afghanistan if we elect a democrat?

Give it all over...it's only words...he's a democrat and thats all that matters. Man, everything is going to be so much better one year from now.

I just can't wait to see how much better off we will be. Don't worry, be happy.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Go ahead keep worshiping this spineless mofo. Let's see how many more demands from Bush the Dems are gonna grant him before he leaves the freaking office. First Patriot Act, then FISA, and now offshore drilling; are there still differences btwn the Dems and Repugs anymore?

Oh Patrick, don't be such a delusional bore. What are you, 14?

It was a choice between a focused group pantsuit that only a menopausal woman or certain kind of gay man could love, or Obama. He was the better - and more popular choice. He's going up against a truly amoral asshole. He's the best we can do. Don't like it? Tough.

Oh come on people! Calm down!

He didn't say, "Drill! Drill!" He said if that what it takes to get his massive economy-changing energy bill though Congress, he'll do it.

"My interest is in making sure we've got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices," Obama said in an interview with The Palm Beach Post. ...

"If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage - I don't want to be so rigid that we can't get something done," Obama said. ...

After speaking to a capacity crowd at Gibbs High School auditorium in St. Petersburg, he told the Post he would be open to expanding the current drilling boundaries if it meant winning approval for more fuel-efficient cars, developing alternative energy sources and making the country more "energy independent."

"I think it's important for the American people to understand we're not going to drill our way out of this problem," he said.

"It's also important to recognize if you start drilling now you won't see a drop of oil for ten years, which means its not going to have a significant impact on short-term prices. Every expert agrees on that."

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/state/epaper/2008/08/01/0801obama1.html

@15 YR DOIN IT RONG

From the Financial Times:

"Although Mr Obama has a good shot at winning traditional Republican states such as Colorado, Virginia and even North Carolina, he cannot capture the White House if he loses more than one of Pennsylvania, Ohio or Michigan – the more traditional, blue-collar swing states, which Mrs Clinton won by huge margins in the primary contests. Polls suggest these states are too close to call.
At this stage in the 1988 presidential race, Michael Dukakis, the Democratic candidate, had a 17 percentage point lead over George H.W. Bush, who went on to win the election. John Kerry [ditto] . . .
That only reinforces disquiet about Mr Obama’s inability so far to take a decisive lead....

"[S]aid Douglas Schoen, a Democratic consultant[,] 'Obama has no trouble with the campaign stagecraft. But this isn’t Harvard, it’s the beer hall. He has to talk in language that people understand.'"

Drunk white guys working in lousy factory jobs or Walmart in Dayton Ohio. Or Flint Michigan.

Or even more -- their spouses -- think Roseanne, only 15 or 20 years older.

Who, who, who could possibly help Obama connect with those folks?

it's summertime and none of this shit matters, the posturing, the promises, whatever. Sept-Oct will show what these guys are made of, and if BO trots out this shit then, well, go ahead and be pissed or whatever. Meantime, chill. It's summer.

What most knee jerk liberals don't see here is you have to have the power in order to do anything at all.

People who see this adjustment in Obama's stand on off shore drilling as the end of their little world are the same people who would keep the Democratic Party forever out of power by their inability to be other then ruled by political correctness and left wing liberal dogma.

"My interest is in making sure we’ve got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices,” Mr. Obama told The Palm Beach Post’s Michael C. Bender. “If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage - I don’t want to be so rigid that we can’t get something done.”

This move by Obama effectively puts states like Florida in play for the democrats because most voters there, right or wrong, support drilling.

It also shows that Obama is willing to compromise to get things done and work across party lines. Two of Obama's main campaign themes that appeal directly to independents, who's votes in the final analysis will control the outcome of the election.

So all you latte sucking windbags who want Obama to be the president better realize your not going to get anything done by attacking him for being a smart politician who's not tied to party dogma that in the end really doesn't amount to a hill of beans.

Obama is the most over-rated politician since Bill Clinton. I respectfully disagree with those of you who say he's just trying to win.

Winning isn't worth it if you have to sell your soul along the way. I'd rather have a president with integrity and a backbone.

Obama's not going to open up any new land for drilling. The fact is the oil companies own millions of acres of offshore land already approved for drilling, and they're not drilling. His statement is consistent with the status quo; he's just framing it the way he is to defuse the misplaced public support for more drilling. That is, he's triangulating in a way that supports a more progressive policy as president. It's smart politics.

It's a death by a thousand cuts, isn't it Obamaniacs? Drip, drip, drip.

Hillary is mean and a sell out! LOL.

Vote for a change in November. Yeah. OK.

you guys are such a bunch of goddamn kneejerks!

offshore drilling is maybe a drop in the bucket, whereas gas tax holiday is an intentional attempt to murder the environment and bankrupt the government at the same time. They are not at all the same.

Hell I'd be for it if they also slapped a 50% profit tax on extractions.