JIM OFFNER, Courier Business Editor | Posted: Sunday, August 3, 2008 12:00 am
While Barack Obama was globe-trotting across the Middle East recently, under heavy guard, trying to convince the world he knows more about war than an ex-POW who refused to crack under years of torture, he might have paused briefly and glanced at the sandy ground.
Beneath his feet, under the hot sand, lay the key to November's elections.
That key is oil.
Not Middle Eastern oil; heaven knows, we've had our fill of that, as well as the unmitigated extortion to which we've allowed ourselves to be subjected at the hands of unelected and unaccountable tyrants over there - combined with the craven worship at the feet of enviro-authoritarians among us - in order to get it.
To borrow from the Obama playbook, "It's time for a change."
Not "change" in the meaningless context he blathers on about in front of his drooling apostles in the mainstream media, the central message of which amounts to no more than subverting our sovereignty and economic freedoms to the whims of "world opinion," whatever that is.
Americans didn't build the world's greatest economy with the approval of the French or Belgians; if anything, they did it in spite of what others thought.
Getting nicey-nicey pats on the back from countries we've left behind as mere extras on the world stage isn't the flashpoint of the upcoming presidential election.
There's only one issue that matters, given our recent economic malaise: To paraphrase James Carville: It's the price of gas, Stupid.
Four-dollar gas makes oil the bedrock political issue in this year's elections.
And if anybody is in need of "change," it's Barack Obama, who along with, maybe, 17 or 18 other people in the U.S., oppose lifting Congress' ban on drilling for oil and natural gas in waters off the U.S. coasts.
His presumptive Republican opponent, John McCain, the oft-independent-minded Republican, may have his flaws, but he's dead-on where this issue is concerned. McCain backs domestic drilling and a lift of the decades-old ban.
As far as the economic health of consumers in this country goes, that alone settles the election.
Voters couldn't have a clearer choice.
That President Bush - hardly a rock-ribbed conservative himself - already has taken the step of lifting the White House's longstanding ban on offshore drilling and, now, is applying the pressure of the bully pulpit to Congress to drop their own opposition, should provide a clue as to how serious a crisis this situation has become.
Not long ago, drilling was a third-rail topic: Anyone who brought it up was instantly branded as an enemy of the environment.
Now, with the price of oil making like a Saturn V headed for orbit - more than doubled in the last year - and strong-arming helpless consumers into a painful stranglehold, any politician who dares oppose the U.S.'s efforts to build its energy independence is nothing less than an Enemy of the People.
Right now, Barack Obama is straddling that third rail.
For 30 years, the U.S., inexplicably, has voluntarily crippled itself. It has denied itself access to one of its most precious and abundant resources. That policy has empowered thugs who have plenty of oil and aren't afraid to drill for it. It is oil that has given them an air of legitimacy that they otherwise wouldn't have. And, they have used that platform, as often as not, for spewing venom against the U.S. Cowed Europeans have been only too glad to listen and nod.
The bans on U.S. offshore oil exploration never made any sense. It's not unlike Iowa opting out of the corn business, choosing instead to buy its grain from the Ukraine.
But things appear to be changing, and the fact that presidential and Congressional campaigns are in full swing likely is the reason. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has gone so far as to threaten to take Congress to court if it refuses to allow drilling in the waters off his state's coasts.
With most politicians, it only takes a 2-by-4 over the head to bring them around to what really matters to their constituents. These guys mostly live in a dreamy, misty world of self-interest and unlimited terms of office. They spend most of their time in bloviate mode, doling out drivel about how they know what's really best for the little people and that all we have to do is trust them. The inanities they utter are as timeless as they are meaningless.
Talk about greenhouse gases.
There's an old maxim that pocketbook issues drive election results.
The price of a gas is the pocketbook issue to end all pocketbook issues, because it's inflicting life-changing pain. It's forcing people to alter their lifestyles; it's thinning out the crowds of would-be homebuyers in suburban and, especially, exurban communities. Air conditioners are being turned down or off; as winter comes on, furnaces will be running with less vigor.
In other election cycles, including 2006, spiraling fuel costs were little more than an annoyance, and few politicians had much to say about them.
They can't dance around the elephant in this room anymore.
This is Iowa's - and the rest of the country's - big chance to call all candidates to account on one of the most important opportunities the U.S. has had to maintain its sovereignty.
Where do these candidates stand on the U.S. drilling for its own oil?
Anyone who opposes it should be thrown out.
If they're not, we'll get what we deserve: even higher fuel prices. And, a warm-and-fuzzy hug from Europe.