John McCain adjusted his position on offshore drilling in response to high gas prices and public opinion showing the majority of voters are now in favor of offshore drilling. Barack Obama is now indicating that he too is willing to compromise.
Recent polling from a
variety of different polling organizations have shown that the American public, by a majority, is now in favor of Congress lifting it's ban against offshore drilling as the president has done with the presidential ban.
The Democrats of the U.S. Congress left town for their 5 week vacation without allowing a vote on drilling to come to the House floor. The Republicans made a big show of staying to discuss it yesterday, after the Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats turned off the lights and microphones and headed out.
The Republicans used Twitter, allow spectators in the gallery and generally,
by all accounts did everything in their power to embarrass the House Democratic leadership for leaving town without dealing with an issue that is becoming an overwhelming priority for U.S. voters, which is gas prices.
Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said he was on a plane ready to take off for Texas when he heard his GOP colleagues were still on the floor. He headed back to the Capitol.
"The word went out that the people's house is finally the people's house again," he said.
Recently John McCain, who previously opposed offshore drilling, responded to the situation of the rising gas costs, by adjusting his position and coming out in favor of offshore drilling, in conjunction with other proposed solutions, all geared toward helping to lower the price of gas. McCain's
words were "exploration is a step toward the longer-term goal."
Reports coming out today show that Barack Obama, like McCain, is announcing that he too, is
willing to compromise on the issue in order to get other energy solutions passed and that he would consider drilling as part of a comprehensive plan.
Obama states,
"If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage - I don't want to be so rigid that we can't get something done."
Although the majority of the U.S. Public has shown they want offshore drilling approved and the Congressional ban lifted,
Nancy Pelosi has refused to allow a vote to come to the floor because even some House Democrats have expressed that if it came to the floor, they would vote for it.
Obama's adjusting his position, as McCain did previously, will put the Speaker of the House, Pelosi, in a very difficult position of either adjusting her methods, or opposing the presumptive nominee of her party.
Either way, with the House on vacation for 5 weeks, people can only speculate how Pelosi will react to the news that Barack Obama has adjusted his stance on the issue.
