McCain’s Drilling Push Good Politics
By pushing to lift a federal ban on offshore drilling Sen. John McCain is betting on good policy being good politics.
McCain has previous challenged a key state issue without damage. During the Florida primary he continued his opposition to a federal catastrophic insurance plan. Gov. Charlie Crist supported it yet still endorsed McCain. The Arizona Senator ended up winning Florida realistically ending the runs of Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. Offshore drilling may have even more passion for Florida voters, but this time, Crist is giving him some cover:
After opposing drilling during his successful 2006 election campaign, Gov. Charlie Crist (R-Fla.) is drawing the ire of environmentalists for appearing to back off from his position in recent days. He told reporters Tuesday that his position was evolving and that he now supports exploratory drilling for oil and gas off Florida’s coast because “Floridians are suffering.”
“When you’re paying over $4 a gallon for gas, you have to wonder whether there might be additional resources to bring that price down,” Crist said.
If you want to talk about this as a pure political play McCain gets more upside than downside. Even though he plays well with independents McCain doesn’t really have a chance at winning California. As for Florida the RealClearPolitics poll average gives McCain a eight-point lead. Even if McCain loses some Florida support he has enough of a cushion.
By pushing for more drilling McCain is reaching out to voters seriously concerned about high gas prices, and he’s doing it in a way that’s full of common sense and easily understood. Unlike Sen. Obama McCain’s not pushing for windfall profits taxes that doesn’t do anything about increasing energy supplies. A voter in Pennsylvania or Ohio can see how McCain’s idea could turn into lower gas prices.
“McCain Plays with Fire on Offshore Drilling“
Gas prices will go down in the next year or so as India and China scale down their oil subsidies for their citizens. But they won’t start scaling down until after India’s elections and China’s Olympics, until then we get to suffer with artificially inflated prices because of those subsidies. This will probably happen before any oil we drill for here will come online.