Do Republicans really want to destroy the hope and health of their children?  Are they that evil?  

Well, just last week a Washington Post editorial said, "there's not much difference between [McCain's] energy policy and that of Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.)." So maybe the house of cards will hold up until November.

The problem is that Burn Baby Burn is simple and stupid, and therefore media-friendly, while Obama's energy plan is complex and "nuanced" and difficult to reduce to compelling sound bites.
As for his pandering by saying he'll include drilling in an all-of-the-above package, that's not going to help in the election.

So the Dems' energy tactic must be to force a vote on an all-of-the-above package, including poison pills the Reps will gag on like stripping corporate welfare for Big Oil, to force the Reps to vote against it. (They don't really want drilling anyway. Drilling is far more useful to them as something those nasty liberals are obstructing than if it became a reality.)

Then, when they vote against this (or maneuver to prevent a vote), call them liars and partisan political game-players, hammer home the point that they were only pretending to want drilling, that it was just the same old sort of Rep dirty trick.

Meanwhile, if I was Obama, all this time, since the energy issue is not my friend, I would've done all I could to counterattack on a different front. I would've been hammering away on the economy all the way.

Yet, as Paul Krugman keeps pointing out, Obama has been all too timid and Kerryish on this.

Krugman zeroes in on this example in particular:
Obama keeps referring to how robust the economy was "in the 90s" and how bad it's been "since then" or some such way of saying things.

Why on earth doesn't he attack:

"Under Bill Clinton and the Democrats, the economy was strong and vibrant, and Americans prospered; while under George Bush and the Republicans, we've suffered every sort of economic decline - recession, stock market plunges, rising unemployment, rising inequality, exploding debt, corporate scandals like Enron, endless billions thrown down the money pit of pork and corruption, and now we have the mortgage and credit crises. George Bush brought you all of these. John Mccain promises to bring only more of the same. But we can get back to the prosperity we enjoyed not so long ago. We can regain the spirit and plenty our hard work deserves. But to do that we must go beyond the failed policies of George Bush and revive the prosperous policies which worked so well before him, and will work again in a brighter future."

Something like that.    

"cuz" barack has people -- living and dead -- whispering in his ear that dignity is power and wrestling isn't dignified -- he threw a lot more than baggage overboard with the good reverend wright

"cuz" like joe romm said in the huffpo, when you're outright lying, it's a lot easier to tell your story

"cuz" many americans would rather believe they're prosperous than be prosperous

"cuz" the black man has to be the good boy

"cuz" the first one to cry "abandon ship" is "the quitter"

"cuz" when you take politics too seriously, you forget the elite of washington DC represents only 1/1000 of the population

I don't think it's so much that they are that evil as it is that they are that naive/distrustful of science.  I'd like to think they don't want to damage their kids and grandkids future, and if they conveniently don't believe in facts then they can relieve their moral obligation to worry about their influence on future generations.

Let's make this place better.

Do they have children?

The silence on science is a lie.

      I asked a conservitive friend of mine why we should burn up all our resources now and leave nothing for our children, and what were we leaving for our grandchildren. He said he didnt think that we would be here that long. He thinks that God will come and whisk them away to happy land. IMHO he hasnt really read the Old Testament where God let evildooers (and his favored children) stew in their own mess for a while.

      Maybe God will let us destroy the earth mostly and in a couple thousand years come back then?  Oh wait I forgot Palin was the latest Disciple and she said "its Gods will for us to drill" So with her direct connection to the big man (or maybe exxon im so confused) we should drill away cause he has a plan! Im going to go pray at the pump now....

David - great post.  One other reason the GOP is the way it is is because the oil and gas companies pay for it to be that way, though, no?  

Seems like Dems could gain some ground by pointing out the basic corruption of having Republican energy policy written (in secret) by oil companies.  Of course, they'd be more effective if they weren't taking the same money, but the Dems can't match the Republican share of oil/gas contributions, or the Republican example of having oil execs as President and VP.  Why do they not make hay with that?

Raphael Sperry