Obama Is Drinking Our Milkshake!

This is just ridiculous.



Nobody on Earth actually believes that increased drilling on the OCS would lower gas prices by more than 3 cents, and not for 10 years besides. And most people paying attention know that oil executives are not the go-to source for lowering your gas prices. Blaming Obama for this is dumbed-down and completely off-topic. Which, of course, is why it appears to be working.

On the other hand, Al Gore made an impassioned challenge to commit to receiving 100% of our electricity from renewables in 10 years, which is completely negated by the fact that he sometimes flies on planes and eats meat. Loser! Fat! The MTP interview, by the way, is instructive and remarkably light on the juvenile conversations that usually define this kind of thing. Digby thinks it's a revolution in insider journalism, but I think the seriousness of Gore's project, with its marshaling of evidence and appeals to reason, has forced the media to play on his field. Also, the enormity of the climate crisis rejects the cynical, easy answers.

What's amazing is that Gore hadn't been on Meet the Press in EIGHT YEARS. We've wasted a lot of time in this country but I think we're finally coming around to the scope of the crisis. And Gore's call ought to be heeded. Pointedly, Speaker Pelosi did not quite endorse it at Netroots Nation. We need to keep pushing. Pelosi is an ally on rejecting the false choice of drilling to lower gas prices, so that's a start.

...UPDATE: Bruce Miller at The Blue Voice just reminded me that in his taped message to Netroots Nation attendees, which hardly anyone saw because it was on Saturday night and everyone was burned out, Obama referred specifically to ending "the tyranny of oil." Not foreign oil, but oil. That's significant. I think we're going to fight our way out of this one.

...UPDATE II: Well, everything has ended, because Bill O'Reilly has now cemented that Al Gore is done.

O’REILLY: Al Gore now is done. He’s done. Ok. He is not a man of respect, he doesn’t have any judgment. The fact that he went to this thing is the same as if he stepped into the Klan gathering. It’s the same. No difference. None. K, he loses all credibility with me. All credibility.

If he thinks Gore stepped into a Klan rally, what must he think of Van Jones? What kind of judgment can a black man have for mixing with us metaphorical supremacists?

...UPDATE III: This is what Gore said about drilling on Saturday, by the way:

"The idea of drilling our way out of our energy crisis is ridiculous, if not abhorrent. There used to be an old remedy for hangovers called 'hair of the dog that bit you,' where you go back the next morning and take another drink. That's sort of what this reminds me of. Have a fossil fuel crisis? Let's go back for a bit more!"