Everyone (except possibly John McCain) knows that domestic offshore drilling will not substantially reduce either the price of oil or the price of gasoline (because of the worldwide market for oil). Given the danger of spills, it seems there's not a lot of reason to do it. But with proper environmental safeguards in place, there's really not much reason not to do it either. One would think Barack Obama, who generally focuses on doing what makes sense rather than what scores political points, would have seen this. When Republicans started clamoring for domestic drilling a couple months ago, Obama could have said "Sure, let's drill, but everyone should realize that drilling isn't going to lower gas prices; alternative energy is still Job #1." That would have neutralized a Republican issue and been perfectly fine policy as well.
In fact, as of today, that is exactly Obama's position. The question is, why didn't he take it earlier? By coming around so late, he's opened himself to charges of flip-flopping...what was stopping him a month ago?
My hypothesis: it was because domestic drilling is very distasteful to the Democratic base. Drilling puts money into the pockets of U.S. oil companies, who tend to use that money to support some of the worst politicians in America and to deny climate change. And it presents an environmental threat; even if that threat is minimal with appropriate safeguards, drilling still seems to prioritize corporate profit over the environment. Democrats are loath to let the bad guys win.
But supporting domestic drilling (under appropriate environmental safeguards) is a lot more benign of a way of giving in to the "bad guys" than, say, supporting domestic spying. It's also more of a no-brainer in terms of grabbing swing voes. We liberals need to learn to pick our battles a little better - because of our instinctive distrust of oil, we've forced our candidate to look indecisive, and that's bad.
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