From National Review, “On Energy, Do Everything” by Charles Krauthammer

It was my great honor during one of my stints guest-hosting the Hugh Hewitt Show to be able to tell Charles Krauthammer publicly to his face (or at least over the phone) what I’ve often said in private – he is the best columnist in America. While that’s pretty much always the case, Dr. Krauthammer’s efforts of late have been particularly stellar. Take the introductory paragraphs from today’s column:

Let’s see: housing meltdown, credit crunch, oil shock not seen since the 1970s. The economy is slowing, unemployment growing and inflation increasing. It’s the sixth year of a highly unpopular war and the president’s approval rating is at 30 percent.

The Italian Communist party could win this election. The American Democratic party is trying its best to lose it.

Democrats have the advantage on just about every domestic issue from health care to education. However, Americans’ greatest concern is the economy, and their greatest economic concern is energy (by a significant margin: 37 percent to 21 percent for inflation). Yet Democrats have gratuitously forfeited the issue of increased drilling for domestic oil and gas. By an overwhelming margin of two to one, Americans want to lift the moratorium preventing drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf, thus unlocking vast energy resources shut down for the last 27 years.

Krauthammer puts his finger on the Democrats’ principal problem – enthralled (or perhaps strangled) by the environmental lobby, the Democrats need to wish away economic realities. The worst part for the Democrats is that the American public sees right through their baloney. Politicians have been promising energy production miracles since Al Gore was a tobacco farmer. While intensifying the hunt for vast quantities of solar and wind power makes sense, America has heard how solar power was going to create miracles for way too long to have any credulity left on the matter.

In the absence of a miracle cure for our energy woes, doing everything possible makes undeniable sense. And yet Democrats have left themselves to make the untenable argument that a presidential candidate hectoring us about our tire pressure will be hugely effective, but the net benefit of harvesting billions of barrels of oil on our own land is trivial.

If you read the Krugman article I linked to earlier today, you know how rattled the Democrats are over this issue. And with good cause.