Drill, baby, drill!

During Rudy Giuliani’s pre-game speech at the Palin Cup, he sketched out the McCain-Palin energy game plan, titled, “The all-of-the-above-approach.” The plan failed to mention any of John McCain’s short-term solutions to the home game of energy independence.
The Xcel Energy Center felt more like a hockey rink than a stage for a Republican convention when the crowd flew into frenzy as the words “nuclear power” spilled off Giuliani’s tongue. He slapped it long, straight to the goal, as he assured that, yes, there will be off-shore drilling. The audience spilled into a stupid stupor — roaring “Drill, baby, drill!” — unaware that by the time they see a drop of oil from new off-shore drilling facilities, their money will be gone and their coach will be retired.
The biggest snafus came during Sarah Palin’s Barack Obama bash, where she claimed he would give us more orders from Washington, reduce the strength of the United States in a dangerous world, refuse to produce energy and increase taxes. In McCain’s speech Thursday, he said Obama wants to “wish away the global economy” while investing in, oh what were they chanting? “U.S.A., U.S.A.” McCain assures us that he will take on China, India and Russia in the energy war by increasing the amount of nuclear power plants and tapping new off-shore pipelines. McCain plans to fund a domestic scavenger hunt for oil on land, in the sea and in the swamps.
McCain reassured us that in his presidency he would stand by our side while we solve the short-term energy problems, hand us a tax rebate for being a do-greener in his clean car challenge and reward us money if we win his build-a-better-battery contest. He wants the greenies out there to know that they show great potential. He will “encourage” companies to create green energy by giving them tax credits until they start making money in our economy — then he’ll address a new plan.
The Obama-Biden plan, called “New Energy for America,” is based on building up our existing, unused domestic oil and gas in the short term, and investing in solutions that would lead the world in new energy technologies. Obama plans to invest in a U.S. economy, one that will create millions of new green jobs, one that will manufacture U.S.-made hybrid cars, one that will force 68 million acres of existing land — 40 of which are offshore — to begin producing oil at home, as well as using petroleum reserves to cut prices immediately.
I’m sure the Maverick knows what it’s like to fight a war abroad. But Obama knows what it’s like to fight for the people at home. It is going to be a 60-day fist fight to November, and energy is definitely a hot punch.

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