Had the White House stuck to its guns, and kept to its previous opposition to offshore drilling, the current crisis would have worked to their advantage. Now I don’t know what they do. From the Washington Post:
The oil spill, which occurred after an explosion on a rig operated by BP, threatens to highlight the environmental risk of offshore exploration — a risk that critics have long warned about and that Obama tried to downplay last month when he announced the expansion of drilling.In that speech March 31, he promised to “employ new technologies that reduce the impact of oil exploration.” He acknowledged that his decision would provoke criticism from both those who decried the expansion and those who said it did not go far enough.
“Ultimately, we need to move beyond the tired debates of the left and the right, between business leaders and environmentalists, between those who would claim drilling is a cure-all and those who would claim it has no place,” Obama said.
Now, the accident in the Gulf may provide more firepower to the critics on the left, who have for years lobbied presidents and Congress to keep in place federal moratoriums on further offshore exploration. Those moratoriums have now expired.
Now who’s looking tired? Had the President sided with his friends and allies, with the people who got him elected, with his own promises, he wouldn’t be in this mess.
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