Did Obama Shift His Stance On Drilling?
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla - Floridians love their coastline, and their economy relies pretty heavily on tourists who want to spend time on it. So when a new poll suggests 60% of them now back expanding off-shore drilling to help alleviate the pressure of high prices at the pump, it’s a sign that the idea has taken hold in the popular consciousness as a possible solution.
Does that explain Senator Barack Obama’s new claim yesterday that he would support such drilling as part of a broader energy solution?
Obama spent the last month ridiculing John McCain for backing more offshore oil production. In Cedar Rapids on Thursday, Obama said the proposal was useless. “It’s not going to provide short term relief, or medium term relief, or long term relief,” he said. “It won’t drop prices in this administration, or the next administration, or the administration after that.”
But after those blistering attacks on McCain, Obama told the Palm Beach Post he might just be open to the idea. “My interest is in making sure we’ve got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices,” he said. “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.”
He even suggested he was bowing to GOP pressure. “The Republicans and the oil companies have been really beating the drums on drilling,” Obama said in the interview. “And so we don’t want gridlock. We want to get something done.”
Today, Obama denied any accusations of a flip-flop. “This wasn’t really a new position,” he told reporters — it’s realism. “What I don’t want to do is for the best to be the enemy of the good here,” said Obama. “If we can come up with a genuine bipartisan compromise in which I have to accept some things I don’t like or the Democrats have to accept some that they don’t like in exchange for actually moving us in the direction of energy independence, that’s something I am open to.”
It seems that the main distinction remaining between Obama and McCain on the issue is enthusaisum. “What I will not do, and this has always been my position, is to support a plan that suggests that drilling is the answer to our energy problems,” said Obama. But: “If we have a plan on the table that I think meets the goals that America has to set, and there are some things in there that I don’t like, then, obviously, that’s something that, you know, I would consider because that’s the nature of how we govern in a democracy.”
Republicans like Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have suggested that many congressional Democrats support drilling, but that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has kept legislation supporting oil exploration off the House floor to protect Obama. If Democrats were forced to vote on the issue, many of them might wind up in disagreement with their nominee.
But here in Florida, Obama seems to be giving them some wiggle room. “What I‘m interested in ultimately is going to be governing. And what that means is, is that we’re going to have to try to get things done,” he said. “At some point, people are going to have to make decisions, do we want to keep on arguing or are we going to get things done?”
Tags: barack obama, congress, drilling, Florida, oil
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Of course he did not shift his position he has always been for off shore drilling. The Obama thinks we are all fools and he can fool us just by speaking.
OBAM the old double talk express .. can change tracks faster than a speeding bullet and tell you it wasnt a change at all
Before Friday 08/01/2008 Obama was against drilling, and he was slightly ahead in the Gallup poll. On Friday McCain has tied Obama in the poll. In other polls its a dead heat. NOW OBAMA IS FOR DRILLING! YA RIGHT! Ok if true, Dems go back to Washington and start voting for it. REMEMBER OBAMA IS YOUR MAN and now he is for drilling. Don’t wait till the law that is against drilling expires in September 2008. I know that Obama can still stop it if he wins in November 2008 by signing an Executive order to stop it in January 2009. If its a Congressional law he can’t.
Here we go again chasing the poles! I really worried if the GOP and oil companies can convince Big O to drill a week or two after he slammed McC for even thinking about it. What a fake, not only does he constantly change his position he blames us for being too dumb to understand what he is saying.
All hail the Mesiah, NOT!!!
It’s kind of hard to claim enviormental damage when hurricans can’t blow down the rigs off shore but can destroy entire cities. not to mention his poles are showing Obama is falling behind. The falling poles could be due to a few things, first his statement that the world was waiting for him, secound, his constant need to try and make people beleive that the republicans are going to use his name and color to scare us which is not happening except by him, and thirdly the fact he will not debate. Then you have that dumb statment to air up you tires and get a tune up and it will save you 18 cents a gallon on gas. Well we did both before that statement and dah it saves about 18 cents a tank. Now McCain did make a few funny adds and they were funny, sadly true but funny.
Did Obama shift his stance on drilling? NO! What is Obama’s favorite word?………. Oh Yes,
“REFINE”! Obama doesn’t FLIP FLOP, or SHIFT, He continuously REFINES his stance on on major issues.
ALL HAIL OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!
(I have to say, when he loses, I truly hope he goes to Hollywood, and gets his own reality show. He is very intertaining!
Hmmm… this week he was against it. Now he’s for drilling. Next week…
No! His stance is to remain moving.
http://www.fightagainstmccain.com/
Obama shifts his “swagger” on everything!
If you think Obama will REALLY CHANGE HIS DRILLING POSITION there is a bridge I want to sell you. The dems will give this entire issue enough lip service to DEEP SIX the whole topic. They risk the support from all the green supporters on this…and it does not even address nuke power…another critical issue that needs to be jump started. Whether proposals will just be administratively strapped with so much paper review or what the dems have the power to simply not allow any compromise to work….AFTER THE ELECTION. The dems have revealed their true feelings on this entire nuke power and drilling matter and untimately WILL NOT CHANGE PERIOD. So to think that they REALLY WILL CHANGE IS TOTALLY MISGUIDED. The only way to change this is for the dems is a defeat in both houses of congress and the presidency….they know this will not happen thus they have enough control to BLOCK EVERYTHING even if the country believes it is the right thing to do. But…they do not care….they just believe the right solution is not be independent thus why change……they wanted higher mileage cars all along…seems that is going in that direction…got their way fast…….but what they did think was going to occur…loss of union jobs will happen big time…shot in the foot????? Anyway….do not believe for one second that the dems are serious about real change….it is but a smoke screen to get the entire matter off the front page.
mark for obaman. nice try on mccain
Would you let B.O. drive your children’s school bus?
This probably won’t get printed for some unknown reason .
Have you noticed how Obama Flips and Flops only to what he thinks people want to hear?
Right , last week he would not drill of shore for oil. Now people are falling against him for that statement.
Today he says he would consider it. Flipping and Flopping is not what we need in the White House just to satisfy the people who are listening at that moment.
POLLS.
Have you noticed how bad he has slipped in the last 10 days or so.
The Media and Fox News have favored him 83% to 17% but they to are losing the grip that they have had.{1out of 6 articles for McCain on Fox} The Fair and Balanced News Station.
The old saying is you lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink
The American Public has been led but they to are not going to accept what is trying to be done by all the Media.
People are getting wise to this Obama Campaign..
i am sure that this was just another example of us taking another snippet out of context. i feel certain that he will clearify it for us in the next few days. remember, he is the one………..all hail.
Obama has expressed willingness to compromise. Didn’t we all learn at a very early age that compromise is a simple fact of life? Isn’t compromise what has been missing in Washington? Don’t most of us believe that the only REAL long and short-term solution is clean, renewable, domestic energy?
This shows how Obama will say anything to please who he is talking to at the moment. Lust this week he said the solution was inflating your tires, and having checkups on your cars-Huh? Maybe he realized how ludicrous that was and decided that drilling does make sense…Why? because the polls are showing that Americans increasingly support drilling.
remember “change you can believe in”. thats exactly what he did,changed to something the republicans believe in. obama, what a joke.
Yes he’s switching. There’s no argument there. But the reason he’s switching is so we can actually make some progress instead of bickering between democrats and republicans that goes nowhere. Otherwise we’ll be stuck how we are now with no one budging on either side. And why is everyone forgetting that McCain made the exact same stance switch just a few weeks ago. It was OK then?
Obama did not flip flop. He is listening to the American people. This is a democracy, not a communistic rule.
Go Obama - We Love You!
It amazes me how stupid Obama thinks the american people are. He thinks he can tell us anything and we will believe it. Some are just finding out he is all rhetoric and no substance. The DNC, super delegates and Pelosi don’t deserve to win for installing Obama. What a sham!
Wow, this is politic at it’s best. it shows how inexperience this guy is. I was really excited to vote for him in the primaries, along with o lot of people that I know. But the more we listen to him on issues compared to McCain, the more I REFINE my positions on these candidates. So does that mean that I am a flip-flopper if I voted for Obama in the primaries and vote for McCain in the General election. I am not alone folks….check out the polls. You would think that with all the FAN that he has around the world and the MEDIA sleeping with him in the sac, he would be ahead by double digit by now. I tell you, Americans are coming to their senses that this guy is just an empty suitcase. I am still having doubts about McCain, but the more I listen to both of them on issues, the more I REFINE my position. Please don’t call me a Flip-Flopper. Call me a “REFINER.”
Obama is another poll chasing politician prostitute!
forget the oil topic why was he not asked why he would cut the butget for the space program.after all he was on the space coast this morning during his farce of a press conferace
Why is everyone forgetting that McCain made the exact same stance switch just a few weeks ago. Shortly thereafter receiving large campaign contributions from the Oil Industry?
Actually I believe in enough oil in our strtigic reserves that if we get attacked and have to go to a real war we have the fuel to do so, and I believe disarming our nukes will make us an easy target, and I believe that all our resources should be developed and used. China has millions of people and they are not going to clean up the enviorment so you can believe that all the tree hugging and save the enviorment bs you want but the reality is we need to develope all our resources and stop spending billions buying them from other countries. We should stay armed and we do not need a civil army to patrol the citizens of our country and we do not need the government paying for our medical and telling us what we can and can not do. Take a look at LA with it’s no more fast food restruats as their people are too fat. We do not need a person who thinks the world was waiting for him as a president and get real if he had not held a concert in Berlin he would of had the turn out that England and France gave him because they said he could not have any concert or campaign in their country. This is a man who says we as a nation are embarassing because we do not speak French or Spanish yet he does not either. This is a man who insults small town Americans. This is a man who thinks we should learn to speak spanish so illegals will be understood. But the worse thing he has done is every time he falls behind in the polls he starts in with how the other candidates will bring up his so called funny name and the fact he is black to scare us. HELLO Obama we all know your name and even if we were flipping bling we know you are black you have told us this at least a hundred times. So who is trying to use scare tactics? Dems have used that line from the begining. The republicans are going to try to scare you into not voting for us. Well hey, you scare us. You take off instead of voting on our oil issues, you scare us with your tantrums and childish behavior. McCain may be older but he is at least honest.
obama uses the new york times as backup for his lies
the times hasn’t told the truth since political correctnss started
Flip-flop Obama….This was so predictable it’s funny.
Nah, you are the one in love with “dark meat”. And yes, he did “flip-flop”.
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Comment by Priscilla
August 2nd, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Obama did not flip flop. He is listening to the American people. This is a democracy, not a communistic rule.
Go Obama - We Love You!
Obama is a phony windbag. He has no solutions at all. If the MEDIA was doing its job McCain would be leading by 20%.
I have been in market research most of my career and the one thing I can tell you is Polls can be manipulated to say what someone wants you to see, therefore, Polls are nothing more than a media tool and talking points for each party to use to try an sway voters towards a candidate. However, if you look at the details of a Poll, what you will see is the sample size is usually under 1,500 registered voters (that is 1,500 registered voters out of ~127 million registered voters) yeah these polls are really speaking for the country. These polls are being conducted with an agenda, they are looking for a certain statistic, so they can pump up their candidate. Ask yourself, why three separate polls (CNN, NYTimes, USAToday) usually have the same numbers, but when (Fox) does their poll during the same time period, the results are significantly different. I am not saying Fox’s polls are wrong, in fact, I think there shouldn’t be any polls. Polls get based on a voters emotions at the time of the call. If they are upset, angry, happy, etc. and they get a call from one of these polls, they can easily sway the results. If one day you get upset at a candidate because they say something you don’t agree with, but you agree with them the majority of the time, your emotions could get the best of you and you answer questions a way you would normally not answer.
I don’t listen to or care about polls, I listed to how the candidate describes and outlines their issues. All the ridicules ads and negative remarks BOTH campaigns are doing is pointless and misleading. They BOTH need to focus on giving us SOLUTIONS to our countries problems and not just two sentence statements on what they will do when they get into the White House or what they other candidate can’t do. I want a candidate to outline there plan for dealing with the Middle East (not just Iraq and Afghanistan), the Economy (Gas prices, unemployment, housing, budget/spending), Health care and Education. The candidate that focuses their campaign on these and other important issues and not on attacking the other candidate will win my vote, as well as, others. I think BOTH candidates are saying good things, but they muck it up by going negative on each other. Who will be the candidate the take the high road and who will continue to take the low road.
Is that silly old worn out two-syllable label really all some of you have to offer in this conversation?
For those who express the idea of compromise will work… I salute you… however the depth of the division and the deeply held conviction by the dems for MANY years that thou shalt be no nuke power NOR NEW DRILLING on new areas I do not at all have any faith that any resonable deal will acutally work. For so long the dems, primarily those green type supporters, have wanted a excuse to get away from SUVs and this significant price increase in gas was a message from heaven…now they would have everything they wanted at one time and given to them on a platter….decreased gas use, conversion to higher mileage car, expansion of solar/wind………with out even having to agree on any nuke power or on drilling; I do not think they really care about the autoworkers and related employees layoffs. Now the american people MUST GO THRU THE DEM CONTACTS WITH THESE GREEN ORGANIZATIONS FOR A “COMPROMISE”….and THEY are negotiating from a position of strength….if anything is agreed upon you can bet it will have to be sealed by the greens….and this is whom the american people must get their approval????? thru the dem leadership and Obama…..RIGHT????? Why should the voters of this country have to get the seal of approval from a minority far left liberal group….they do not own the land where the drilling could occur nor have the rights of the land where the nuke power plants are…….and yet they will want POWER for any compromise which they should have ZERO. The common sense solution is obvious…what kind of “compromise” is required????…only so many wells??…restricted nuke expansion??? Why should a national security issue be up to such a far left group…..I think the representatives who currently do not support this energy independence should be voted out of office now……as much as some believe this is a dem issue…it is a security issue which warrants no “approval from fring groups”. It is their activitism that has put the USA into this dependency state…you think they really have the interest of the USA at heart….NOT.
It’s called bipartisanship people. Obama is against drilling but realizes a comprehensive energy policy needs to be passed and needs the support of Republicans and Democrats alike…
What you call Flip Flopping is strength of character. If the president NEVER compromised or changed their course because of intelligence reports to the contrary or to get something done, we’d be like, in a war that never should have been waged, with an economy that sucks, no energy policy to speak of and tax cuts for the rich - during a time of war… oh wait, that’s right, WE ALREADY HAVE THESE THINGS BECAUSE THE PRESIDENT REFUSES TO LISTEN TO ANYONE/ANYTHING BUT HIS “GUT” INSTINCT.
Wake up and smell what Fox News is shoveling. They are about as Rightwing Nut Jobbery as the media gets. CNN is all that’s left of the three when it comes to unbiased reporting.
Please allow me to refine my position on Obama, before i found him to be a average lying politition, now I find him to be a dishonest politition who takes the American people for being just plain stupid. We are only stupid because we want to be and we are the ones we have been waiting for………….
Of curse is for drilling he always is, drill our pocket for taxes .
Obomas talks out of both sides of his mouth. He doesn’t have a clue about anything. Hey Priscilla!
He doesn’t listen to what people are saying. He only listens to what comes out of his own flip flop mouth.
They dont have a chance to say anything. Even if he did listen to their words, they would in go in one ear and out the other. keep on lovin’. He is a loser. LOSER LOSER LOSER!
Time to keep every option on the table……then pick the one that will get the best bang for the bus.
Politics at it’s best. Bump, bump, bump…..just ran over McSame.
GOBama’08
God, This guy is unbelivable! This guy has become bundle of lies. Master flip flopper Kerry looks more like decent compared to Mobama
Isn’t a Flip Flop a complete 180-degree reversal? When Obama says he might compromise that’s not even coming close to reversing his position. McCain, however, did a 180-degree reversal on drilling earlier this summer. Let the Flip Flop label stick to McCain my friends.
Even if rigs don’t leak during hurricanes, they most certainly get damaged and taken out of production. Go ahead and bet on them if you like.
And now, Cindy McCain as Miss Buffalo Chip? You, my friend, are unworthy. You make me so sick I could spit!
Dear Mr. McCain,
Please accept my apology, I let my emotions get the best of me, and I wish I could delete my previous post. While I do not agree with your policies, you are an Honorable Senator, and I just diminished myself. I am sorry.