At least McCain can recognize a semi bearing down on his position.  This semi has the name "energy crisis" emblazoned in 3-foot high letters on the trailer.  

Escrowe "Fool me once, blow your head off..."

"In a press conference today, he tipped his hand about what that speech will include: He says he'll call for federal limits on oil and gas exploration to be lifted, in order to allow states that want to permit exploration within their boundaries to do so."

Are there Federal limits on drilling for oil on state-owned or private land, aside from laws protecting private property and the environment from pollution?

The oil under Federal land belongs to all U.S. citizens, so states alone really shouldn't be able to authorize exploration or drilling. I assume McCain -- a firm believer in property rights and capitalism -- is not advocating giving away property owned by tax-paying U.S. citizens!

Then there's that word "exploration". So, McCain wants to permit states to permit corporations (doesn't matter if they are American-owned, by the way) to look for oil. He's not actually saying "drill" for oil. Is this a slick way for McCain to say he's both against and for drilling... an audience that already favors McCain will hear what they want to. Brilliantly smarmy.

  I think we can see this already. I read yesterday that a recent poll now has 57% of Americans supporting drilling ANWR. Clearly McCain is going to use this to try to separate off independents. The Democrats need to be careful to not get beat by this issue. There could be some freebees (politically speaking) here, drilling off California, Florida, and the Northeast is not a federal, but a state issue. Therefore one can (cynically) propose removing federal restrictions without having to worry about the nonexistant impact of the proposal.