Politics as Usual from the Candidate of Change
The good news today is that both candidates have very nearly the same energy plan: domestic drilling, incentives for alternate energy source development and non-gasoline vehicles, and more nuclear power plants. Sure, Barack Obama’s in favor of taking tons of your money in the form of confiscatory windfall profit taxes and he’d do “incentives” in the form of huge and wasteful government programs, but, let’s face it, John McCain’s overall energy policy has a couple gaping holes in it (such as developing a huge fleet of electric cars while not considering the massive load that would put on an already-strained electrical generation infrastructure).
The bad news is that even though Obama’s domestic drilling and alternative energy suggestions are nearly identical to those of McCain, he has no problem calling McCain a tool of the oil companies. It’s the same hoary insult hurled at anyone who doesn’t suggest that we should all but nationalize the oil industry and immediately launch the Federal Horse and Buggy Administration.
John McCain is not more a tool of Big Oil (whatever the hell that is) than Barack Obama or Al Gore. It’s an insult to our intelligence to suggest that he is. Worse, it’s lazy politics, the stuff you say when you have nothing else and you desperately need some cheap pp from your base to pump up your flaccid poll numbers.
What bugs me about his cheap shot is that he can do a lot better but he simply won’t. He won’t debate John McCain in any setting but the MSM-run, carefully scripted, canned debates. He has a great opportunity to demonstrate that he isn’t going to run his campaign in the same old way. So far, though, he’s just been another hack product of Democratic machine-politics whose big motto “Change” is just a slogan.
Other Posts of Interest:
- John McCain Doesn’t Know How Much Gas Costs. Get Out the Pitchforks! (UPDATE: Guess What? He Didn’t Say That At All.)
- What’s Barack Obama’s Excuse?
- If This is Monday, John McCain’s Energy Policy Has Probably Changed
Category: Johnny Mac, The Obamessiah, Thinking About Energy
Oh, come now…I think McCain is much more in the pocket of Big Oil than Obama and Gore. You're certainly stretching credibility with that statement.
Also, you say that their energy proposals are the same. Well, they have some similarities because it's not like they can create different alt energy sources, but where they differ is when it comes to corporate tax cuts. McCain favors more for Big Oil, and Obama doesn't.
Those are just the facts. Call Obama a hack if you wish, but this commercial wasn't hacky, just negative in tone.
I don't see McCain as in the pocket of Big Oil. I think it's a convenient fiction because he's a Republican and there's that stereotype.
Obama doesn't favor tax cuts for any company, oil or not. He tends toward confiscatory taxes and government control of every business. But he's always been like that, so it's not news I suppose.
How can McCain be in the pockets of Big Oil? he has voted against offshore drilling for 25 years, and old relented when the high price of oil threatened to ruin the US economy. He is doing the right thing for the benefit of the country, though it is against his personal beliefs. That is leadership – putting one's personal beliefs aside for the betterment of the whole.