Oh, so now McCain says it’s a good idea to inflate your tires. This is something new: He has taken to attacking Obama on positions where he agrees with Obama. Another example: he flayed Obama for his proposal to withdraw from Iraq, then said it was a “pretty good” timetable. Meanwhile, he also continues to attack Obama for positions Obama hasn’t taken or is no longer taking–like Obama’s position on offshore drilling, which has become a reluctant yes, in order to get a compromise piece of energy legislation through the Senate. McCain continues to say Obama is opposed. He also says Obama is opposed to nuclear power, which Obama never has been–a position he took some grief about during the Democratic primaries. It’s getting hard to keep all of McCain’s attacks–and his rules about when it’s ok to compromise and when not–straight.
For those of you who are new to politics: Obama’s position on offshore drilling is what is called a compromise. It is how significant legislation gets passed–which is something that hasn’t happened very often lately. It is what McCain did when he joined thirteen other Senators to come up with a plan to allow some, but not all, of the President’s Republican judges to be confirmed while preserving the minority right to filibuster. (McCain criticized Obama–rightly, I believe–for not joining that compromise.)
In this case, Obama decided to allow offshore drilling in order to get more funds for alternative energy development. Not a bad deal, I think…and I hope it passes when Congress reconvenes. (McCain is opposed because the bill contains a tax increase, a principle on which he will not compromise…except, maybe, when it comes to his own plan to cap-and-trade carbon emissions, which contains a hidden tax on electricity.)
The price of governing is ideological impurity. It is a principle John McCain has favored in the past, and may still, except–apparently–when it is done by Obama. But it’s hard to tell.