Hmmmmm…

I smell something. It’s awfully familiar. Let’s follow my nose…

Is it over here? Nope. Maybe its over here?

Wrong again. Where and what could it be?

Ah, here it is. It’s the charred smell that comes from the smoking crater that is created when fact and spin collide.

Today Obama said he does not support deep water offshore drilling as a way to alleviate the energy crisis we’re in. The story can be found here but here’s where I think the freshest crater happened, and why. Follow closely.

Here’s what Obama said…

“Believe me — if I thought that there was any evidence at all that drilling could save people money who are struggling to fill up their tanks by this summer or this year or even the next few years, I would consider it,” Obama said. “But it won’t. And John McCain knows that.”

Instead, Obama said he would spend $150 billion over the next 10 years on clean energy and encourage conservation.

“That’s how we can protect our coastline and still make the investments that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and bring down gas prices for good,” he said.”

Okay. I can agree with that. Offshore drilling won’t help gas prices any more than drilling in Alaska will. It’s a Band-aid on a shotgun wound. However, here’s the spin, courtesy of McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.

“Barack Obama went before the cameras to make clear he opposes any measure of short-term and long-term energy relief. He is now on the record opposing every single initiative that might help Americans with their current pain at the pump. Barack Obama himself has said that the only problem is that gas prices went up too fast. The American people cannot afford Barack Obama’s do-nothing, out of touch energy policy. Unlike Barack Obama, John McCain has laid out a clear strategy that will provide Americans needed relief at the gas pump while giving the states’ the right to choose deep water energy exploration and the ability to move America toward energy independence.”

*KABOOM*

Let’s examine these two statements again. Obama said something that made sense (at least to me) and McCain’s spokesman took that, looked at it, ignored it, and instead responded to what he wished Obama had said. Then he has the balls to say the policy is “do nothing” and “out of touch”.

You know what’s “do nothing” and “out of touch”? Pretending more oil is the solution. It’s not. Investing in alternative fuels and renewable energy is. That’s real energy independence. Actually, it’s (or it should be) the conservative position. It takes a special kind of idiot to assume this stuff is always going to be there. Forget global warming or any other tree hugging hippie crap. This is a matter of national security. We’re hooked and the Saudi’s and other foreign nations are our dealers. They can cut us off whenever they want and there’s precisely jack we can do about it…unless someone decided to invade Saudi Arabia. Let’s not give anyone any ideas though.

They have the money to wait us out. We need them more than they need us. They’ve got a lot of oil and we don’t. So, my question is why don’t we cut the cord? Let’s alter the equation a bit. Assuming offshore drilling, or drilling in Alaska, will solve our gas problems the effect will be temporary at best and far from immediate. I grew up in a town that had not just one, but at least 5, oil refineries. As best as I can tell (and I’m nowhere close to being an expert) it takes a while to find and process this stuff, and, eventually, it will run out.

Or, we can do what Americans do best…innovate. We have a long and successful history of making crash programs work. Hell, in 1961 Kennedy said we would land on the moon before the decade was out. We only had a little more than 15 minutes in space at that point and the Russians were kicking our asses. However, a leader with some real vision set a goal and gave us a deadline. We hadn’t even invented the stuff we would need to invent that stuff we would need to go from one celestial body to another. Yet, we did it…twice…before the December 31, 1969 deadline. In the 1940s an atomic bomb went from an abstract idea to a horrifying reality in less than 3 years. It’s not like we haven’t made seemingly impossible things happen. As an avid Air Force fan I think we should take a hint from one of their mottoes.

“The difficult we do immediately…the impossible takes a few minutes longer.”

So let’s find the smartest people we can. Give them what they need. Shield them from politics and self anointed media experts (like me for example) and let them do what they do best…dream and create.

I’m not adverse to throwing the oil industry some money either. There are jobs and livelihoods at stake. I’m not talking about the executives either. I’m talking about the guy that works every day next to a huge flammable tank. They will need re-training for these new technologies. We don’t want to lose jobs. So, yeah, I’m not opposed to short-term subsidies for this purpose. There’s a balance that needs to be maintained between hope and reality.

Getting back to the smoking crater though, study it carefully and you’ll see how this works. Most, if not all, campaign rhetoric is designed around what someone wished their opponent had said instead of what was actually said. Few things illustrate this better than that little exchange.

Spin does not always win…or even make sense come to think of it.

~ by Sean on June 20, 2008.