During one of his campaign stops yesterday, Sen. Obama complained that Sen. McCain had changed his mind about offshore drilling:

“McCain says ‘Here’s my plan, I’m going to drill here, drill now which is something he only came up with two months ago when he started looking at polling,” Obama said of McCain’s energy policy.

The GOP hopeful has become a vocal proponent of offshore oil drilling as a way to ease U.S. dependence on foreign oil and has criticized Obama for failing to embrace it as a way to help bring down oil prices. Obama noted that McCain had long opposed lifting the moratorium on offshore drilling.

back in late June, I noted John Meynard Keynes’ famous quote:

When asked why he changed his position on an issue, John Maynard Keynes said: “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”

It isn’t entirely clear why that hasn’t sunken in with Sen. Obama. for that matter, it isn’t clear that the Democratic majorities in the House or Senate have figured things out with regard to energy policy.

Sen. McCain changed his mind when gas reached $4/gallon. Sen. McCain changed his mind because he knew that high gas prices had the potential of tanking the economy. He knew that high gas prices were causing unbearable inflation for consumers. I’d say that those are pretty solid reasons for changing one’s mind. I’m betting that most people would agree.

Sen. Obama obviously thinks that those aren’t good enough reasons, that there had to be an ulterior motive. What’s odd is that it’s Sen. Obama that’s shifted more often than desert sand in a windstorm on the energy issue. Perhaps his handlers didn’t tell him that he shifted positions from drilling being a Republican “scheme” during a campaign stop in Missouri to saying he was open to drilling when campaigning in Florida.

I noted here that Sen. Obama shifted his position when polling in the Sunshine State showed 60 percent of Floridians favored drilling off Florida’s coast. I also noted that Obama’s shift didn’t occur after a major price spike or a supply shortage. It happened immediately after the polling came out.

The good news is that the McCain camp didn’t wait long to respond:

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers responded, “John McCain has never questioned Sen. Obama’s patriotism, but he clearly does question Sen. Obama’s experience and judgment, and they do have profound differences of opinion on the best way to reduce our dependence on Mideast oil, bring jobs back to America and keep our nation safe.”

Make no mistake about one thing: the economic model that a McCain administration would follow is dramatically different than the socialist model that an Obama administration would follow. It’s also undeniable that a McCain administration would be significantly more sure-footed with national security and foreign policy issues than an Obama administration.

Sen. McCain’s already proven that with the Russian-Georgian crisis. Sen. Obama took several statements and valuable hours to finally get to where Sen. McCain started at.

Sen. Obama’s attempt to cast Sen. McCain as a poll-watching flip-flopper wasn’t Sen. Obama’s only sidestepping of the truth:

He tried to accomplish the second goal by using some of his strongest rhetoric to date. “Toss the bums out, we’re starting from scratch, we’re starting over. This is not working,” Obama said referring to what he believes voters should be thinking about the Republicans.

“Just read the papers. These are the knuckleheads who have been in charge. Throw ‘em out,” he said, but acknowledged that “American politics aren’t that simple.”

Excuse me, Sen. Obama, but didn’t Democrats retake control of Congress in 2006? Don’t tell me that your advisers didn’t tell you that. Then again, they might’ve thought that God was omniscient and didn’t need reminding. It might just be that Sen. Obama has a habit of making wild, inaccurate statements when he’s working a crowd:

Sen. Obama sounds cocky but he’s a lightweight who hasn’t had to make a difficult decision in his life. The presidency isn’t the place to start learning how to make difficult decisions that affect millions of people’s lives or that can change the course of history.

Technorati Tags: Drilling, Barack Obama, Flip-Flops, Democrats, John McCain, John Maynard Keynes, OCS, Polling, Economy, Inflation, Gravitas, National Security, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

1. When McCain reverses previous decisions, he changes his mind for the sake of America. When Obama does the same thing, he’s an inconsistent flip-flopper who cannot be trusted.

   Comment by Liem — August 18, 2008 @ 11:15 am

2. Wait a sec Liem. I read this article, and it says McCain changed his mind when gas hit 4 quid a gallon. Change of economics.

   Obama changed his mind when he saw that 60%Floridians polled said they wouldn’t mind off shore drilling. Change of public opinion.

   Now Obama is tryuing to insinuate that McCain flip flopped ?
   I didnt hear McCain complain about anything but Obama’s judgement.

   I’m not saying saying Obama flip flopped, im just pointing out the circumstances that preceeded the mental chemistry.

   Call it what you will.

   Comment by T.A Gray — August 18, 2008 @ 1:12 pm

3. I listened to the interview from Orange Co. the other day and McCain had answers that made sense. BHO was a bit lost. Obama would be very bad for this country as president. Just go back a little ways and he is WAY left. Like commie left. He has changed his stance, not his mind, on many things just to please the polls.

   Comment by george — August 18, 2008 @ 2:05 pm