The debate over energy is going full tilt. Somehow Barack Obama is now reduced to arguing that tire inflation is a substitute for domestic energy development. I am not sure how calling your opponent “ignorant” qualifies as “the high road,” but I do agree with this take from the Left that “Obama will lose this exchange and wind up sounding like a Dukakisian know-it-all.”

Obama does have a few problems on the subject of energy: he is flip-flopping (or maybe not) on drilling and on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), he is saddled with his recalcitrant Democratic Congressional colleagues who fled rather than vote on drilling, public opinion is overwhelmingly against him, and he has his facts wrong (at least on oil savings from inflated tires). Mainstream media outlets frown at his windfall profits tax and SPR flip-flop which are seen as ham-handed, very old school gimmicks.

This episode is classic Obama: he was slow to recognize he had a problem, he looks alternately recalcitrant and then irresolute (as with the surge) as be bobs and weaves between his base and political reality, and he condescends to voters. And then he doesn’t have a good answer for his own voting record. But it is really a failure of common sense: why not include domestic drilling as a significant part of our energy approach? (After several weeks someone seems to have explained this to The One.)

The haphazard and delinquent effort to catch up to McCain’s energy policy blitz (which has been going on for weeks now) also tells us something else: Obama thinks he can ignore whatever McCain is doing. It is not surprising for the candidate who considers himself already President to disregard what his opponent is up to. The temptation is great to try to run out the clock and get by on pablum and pretty pictures.

But Obama does it at his peril . He is now struggling to find a way to counteract the McCain energy offensive. You have the feeling that each day will bring a new challenge/gambit from the McCain camp (What’s next? Jiffy Lube tune-ups for the entire press corps?) and the rest of the day will be spent watching Obama and his media allies trying to swat away the incoming fire. It is what happens when you take a victory lap months before the first votes are cast.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 12:08 PM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.