John McCain Is the Top Flip-Flopper

June 23, 2008 RSS Feed Print

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina declared on Sunday that Sen. Barack Obama would "say anything, do anything" to win in November. However, Graham, the cochair of Sen. John McCain's national campaign, said his man would always put his nation first.

This remarkable and hypocritical accusation was made because Obama had flip-flopped on his vow to accept public money in the fall campaign. It wasn't Obama's finest hour, but Graham was over the top with that zinger.

Graham was apparently suffering from political amnesia. McCain has flip-flopped on taxes and on oil production and its impact on the environment. Clearly, the presumptive GOP nominee has been tipping his hat to the GOP's right-wing base.

As for Graham himself, he was reminded on Sunday's Meet the Press that he had been once been opposed to oil drilling off South Carolina's shores. He has joined McCain now in favor of the drilling because he says the issue has changed.

It is estimated that it would be a decade or so before any offshore drilling would have any impact on the cost of gasoline. In addition, refinery capacity isn't ready.

One of the reasons for the $4-plus price of gasoline at the pump has been our nation's playing pitty-pat with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Bush's father probably saved that country in Desert Storm because Saddam Hussein had his troops massing at its border after seizing Kuwait. The kingdom was in the dictator's sights.

But Bush's son has waited until now to plead with the Saudis for more production. They are going to produce a trickle compared to the need.

They play tough politics in South Carolina. Lindsey Graham should stare in the mirror before he starts talking about the opposition's saying anything or doing anything to win.

Tags:
presidential election 2008,
John McCain,
Barack Obama

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Abrsaemk of DE 6:42PM July 13, 2009

Won't a lot of the "new" oil drilled off our beaches and in ANWR be exported to Asia?

According the CIA Factbook, more than a million barrels per day of our oil was being exported in 2004.

War Eagle of AL 10:28AM June 25, 2008

The Dept. of energy recently released a report that said that it would take about 20 years for any new off-shore oil drilling to have any impact on the price of oil or gasoline.

There are no off-shore oil platforms waiting in the wings to be pushed out for use, they will have to be built from scratch at the cost of millions (for the cheapest type of platform) or billions. Who assumes that this cost will NOT be "passed on" to the consumer?

The US has no new refineries for oil. Currently, all US oil refineries are running at full capacity to meet current gasoline demand. It would take anywhere from 1-3 years to build new oil refineries, again at the cost of billions. Who assumes that THIS cost will NOT be "passed on" to the consumer?

These are yet more inconvenient facts that Sen. McCain refuses to acknowledge.

The best alternative for the US is to begin moving to a new energy source: ethanol, sugar alcohol, fuel-cell, compressed air. Once we eliminate the hold that OPEC currently holds over the US, the better off we are. Any other action is to increase the control that OPEC has over the US.

W. Tarry of TX 7:00AM June 25, 2008

A Capital View

John MashekJohn W. Mashek covered politics in Washington for four decades with U.S. News & World Report, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Boston Globe. His primary beats were Congress, the White House, and national politics. He covered every presidential election from 1960 to 1996. He was a panelist in three televised presidential debates in 1984, 1988, and 1992.

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