When McCain Attacks!

It looks as though another one of Senator McCain's recent attacks has landed on target. McCain and his people know that high gasoline prices have hurt the voter where the pain is most palpable, the wallet. So McCain proposed the apparent quick fix-start of drilling off previously off-limits offshore sites.

There was no mention of the fact that the United States does not have enough refinery capacity to handle more oil , nor was there any mention that any new oil that might result from offshore drilling won't be available for a minimum of ten years, nor was there any mention that no credible source believes that offshore drilling will discover any significant new sources of crude.

But apparently the voters think that drilling is a nifty idea and that left Obama looking like former California Governor Jerry Brown, who earned the nickname "Governor Moonbeam" for his early advocacy of environmental issues. Obama could not be seen as favoring environmentally enlightened long-term energy policies over the well-being of Novembers lever pullers.

So this week Obama pulled back from his own stated positions by saying, well, sure, maybe we should drill offshore. From the New York Times:

Senator Barack Obama said Saturday that he would reluctantly consider accepting some new offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in exchange for stripping oil companies of tax breaks and extending several tax credits to spur the search for alternative fuels.

At the same time, Senate Republicans appear to have dropped their insistence on opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

Mr. Obama has until now opposed any expansion of lands for offshore drilling. But in a news conference here, he noted that there had been “very constructive” talks between Senate Republicans and Democrats on this issue in recent days, applauding a plan unveiled by a group of Republican and Democratic senators to permit drilling while supporting an effort to convert most vehicles to using alternative fuels in 20 years.

Obama, who had a long history of opposition to off-shore drilling now looks like a political flip-flopper.

Obviously, McCain drew blood and Obama moved to reposition himself. How will this stand with the Obamaniacs? (And what about "Obama girl? Where does she stand? Or live?")? Now that Obama has the nomination wrapped up, he inevitably will move from the left to try to capture the political center. Will his left-leaning core follow him to the center or will they engage in their usual snit when they perceive a lack of political purity? The leftists certainly will stick with Obama as there are no alternatives available to them, unless Ralph Nader rises from the dead, and we know what Nader did to Al Gore in 2000.

At this point, McCain has landed two punches, one from the policy flank and one from the race flank, that have forced Obama into the position of responding to McCain's message, rather than emphasizing his own.

Obama has to decide whether his better course of action is to get down in the dirt and respond to these attacks or to take the political high road and come off looking like the elitist pansy that McCain is trying to paint him. Either course of action has risks for the Democrat.