Domestic drilling has been the buzz all week. Most Americans (67 percent per Rasmussen) support offshore drilling. And now John McCain, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, and President Bush are calling for an end to the moratorium on offshore drilling, while Barack Obama is taking the 33 percent side of the issue.
Yesterday McCain said, "We have proven oil reserves of at least 21 billion barrels in the United States. But a broad federal moratorium stands in the way of energy exploration and production. And I believe it is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions and to put our own reserves to use." Hot Air's Ed Morrissey notes, "This news comes as a relief to consumers who have waited for some promise of action at any level of the government."
Bloggers think drilling is a winning issue. At The Next Right, Matt Hurley explains why "campaigning against the Pelosi Premium is a winner": because "95% of the American people are very concerned or somewhat concerned about the the price of gasoline. That Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats continue to turn a deaf ear to this issue is amazing." Power Line's John Hinderaker says that while it is a good start, McCain needs to do more: "McCain needs to emerge as an aggressive, enthusiastic advocate of affordable energy and economic growth. If he can do that, he, and the Republican Party, will sweep to victory in November."
Obama then called McCain's support for offshore drilling "another example of short-term political posturing from Washington" and argued for a windfall profits tax. At Contentions, Jennifer Rubin argues that "opposing drilling for domestic oil production seems like a loser politically for Obama. How long and hard he argues that we should continue our present offshore oil ban will tell us for certain if it is." Redstate's Pejman Yousefzadeh adds that "it is impossible to take seriously the Obama campaign's argument that a removal of the ban on offshore drilling only serves to benefit oil companies." And the Political Machine's Dave sums up Obama's refusal to support offshore drilling: "Wow, that's a lot of words to say, 'yeah were still not drilling offshore, sorry about the $4 gallon gas, not much I can do.'"
