Barack Watch

“America is …, uh, is no longer, uh … what it could be, what it once was.”
Barack Obama, Aug. 6, 2008, Campaign stop in Elkhart, Indiana.

This seems a totally incoherent statement. Something no longer being what it could be is a nonsensical confusion of tenses (really, really inartful). What mythical golden age does the second part refer to: when slavery was legal, when the country was torn apart by a civil war, when the Indians were being rounded up onto reservations, when monopolies and rich industrial barons and bankers ruled the economy, when we were involved in two world wars, or when we suffered through the Great Depression? One suspects he is thinking of recent Democrat administrations like Kennedy, Johnson, or Clinton(?), but these were not the halcyon days liberals would have us think.

Barack Watch

Once Again... Silly Americans Are Just Imagining Things-- Obama DID NOT Change His Position on Dipping Into the Strategic Oil Reserve, Gateway Pundit, Aug. 4, 2008

"Democrat Barack Obama called today for tapping the nation's strategic oil reserves to help drive down gasoline prices, a shift from his previous position on the issue.

The reversal is the second refinement in Obama's energy policy. Last week, he said that he would reluctantly consider accepting some offshore oil drilling. Obama had previously said he opposed such drilling, which is strongly backed by rival John McCain, who has urged that states be allowed to decide whether to drill." -- L.A. Times, Barack Obama shifts on tapping national oil reserves, Aug. 5, 2008.

That's not a flip-flop. It's ... redefining ... a previous inartful position.

So McCain's suggestion to suspend the Federal gas tax for the summer was a short term "gimmick", but tapping the Strategic Reserve, which Barak previously opposed, is not. He opposed off-shore drilling before he now decides to "reluctantly consider" it. He claimed proper inflation of car tires would entirely eliminate any need for further exploration and drilling, a patently ridiculous assertion, demonstrating extreme innumeracy. And speaking of short term, ineffective solutions, what else can his suggestion of a windfall tax on oil companies to fund a $1,000 payment to families be called? Obama is certainly demonstrating he is an agent of change, as he does it every day.