I wish to salute President Bush’s comments today on the gasoline price situation. The fact is that if President Clinton hadn’t vetoed drilling in ANWR back in 1994 we would already have this oil in production. If the Democrats and a few misguided Republicans hadn’t been blocking the Bush energy plan since it was proposed, we would be far closer to getting additional oil that we are at present. Senator Schumer can keep saying every year that only new drilling will not do anything about the current prices but waiting won’t solve anything either. Does he really think that waiting will make oil cheaper?
The time to start seeking new sources of oil is now. Not just in ANWR but in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere it can be found. The prices are high enough to proceed with the development of our oil shale resources and processes to convert coal to liquid fuel.
On the other hand the existing policy of supporting ethanol should be discontinued because it all little to our net energy supply while driving up food prices. The factors that lead this conclusion include that fact that ethanol only produces about seventy percent of energy produced by gasoline. In addition don’t forget the diesel fuel used to plant, harvest, and transport the crops. Additional energy is required to process the grain into ethanol and given the lack of ethanol pipelines more diesel is required to transport the ethanol to the refineries to be mixed with gasoline. When we take all this into account there is very little net energy gain remaining. Senator Schumer even agreed with the analysis until he was chosen to head the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
If you don’t like the prices you are paying for gasoline and you want to know who to blame, let me suggest Democrat politicians. They have consistently opposed any effort to increase our fuel supply for many years. Certainly since the start of the Clinton Administration this has been the case. So don’t be fooled into thinking that electing Democrats will lower the price at the pump. They have no plan that will lead to this desired result.
But, for President Bush the challenge now is to turn one day’s comments into a campaign to increase oil production. He has long had the behavior pattern of coming out and making a isolated good speech only to go dormant on the issue in question for months. I urge President Bush to make opening up oil production his final legacy. Working with Congressional Republicans, he needs to demand a vote on opening ANWR and Gulf drilling. Buy forcing the Democrats to take a stand he will either get it passed or give Republicans candidates a big issue in the fall elections.
Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos
In mid-February I posted the item below and began e-mailing Rush Limbaugh advocating active conservative involvement in the remaining Democrat primaries. In the final days before the Texas and Ohio primaries Rush came out for this idea. I have no way of know if I had anything to do with it or is just a case of "great minds" coming to the same conclusion. The results so far are very satisfying!
On the down side we are stuck with McCain who hardly is our dream for a president. He is wrong on a host of issues and lacks the aggressiveness that we need in a candidate. But, he does have a certain appeal to moderate voters who could challenge the Democrats in states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. The likely Democrat nominee, Barack Obama, will almost certainly lose Florida and Ohio in the general. I felt this even before the Rev. Wright material surfaced.
The strategic question is still one of trading off two bad scenarios. If McCain wins he will push the Republican Party to the left and will push it in the same direction as the Democrats on global warming and immigration. Furthermore, there is little or no chance of the Republicans regaining control of Congress for years if McCain (or any other Republican) is elected president. However, if Obama wins we face the potential for great damage to our foreign policy and via collateral damage to our economy. It would be nice to have a "Bill Clinton-type" from which to pivot back into power but this will not be the case. The issue of an Obama presidency is "will the damage be so great as to be irretrievable" as Henry Kissinger would put it?
What To Do After McCain's Victory
With McCain the victor in the Republican contest, conservatives have for the time been defeated in the presidential contest. So what can we do now? Well, it seems that Barack Obama is now the "smart money" pick for the Democratic nomination. My suggestion is that in all of the upcoming open primaries conservatives cross over and vote for Hillary Clinton. The reason is not so much that we can change the ultimate outcome but if we can give her just enough support to keep her in the race, we might unleash fratricidal tendencies in the Democratic Party. At a minimum it will cause them to waste critical campaign funds against each other.
Playwrite David Mamet's Political Evolution
David Mamet who is known for many screen plays including the famous political satire "Wag the Dog" has published an article in The Village Voice detailing his break with doctrinaire liberalism. I believe he was heading in this direction ever since he wrote the aforementioned script. But, I doubt that he is now a doctrinaire conservative either. It is well worth reading.