Shrewd moves?
“It is a telling sign of where American politics is now headed that last week several leading conservative voices proclaimed Barack Obama had seen the conservative light and many leading liberal voices accused him of being a sellout,” Andrew Sullivan writes in the Times of London.
“On one extreme, the Wall Street Journal bizarrely claimed that Obama was now running for George W. Bush’s third term. On the other, liberal blogger Arianna Huffington accused him of making a ’very serious mistake’ by agreeing to a new wire-tapping law. And leading left-wing blogger Markos Moulitsas accused Obama of ’unnecessary stabbing’ of political allies. Neither side, I’d say, is right — the truth is more muddy. However, if you want proof that Obama is one of the shrewdest politicians in recent history, last week is hard to refute,” Mr. Sullivan said.
“Obama began it with a full-throated defense of patriotism, in front of two large American flags, invoking his white family and its history of military service. He went out of his way to praise Gen. David Petraeus and to condemn the attack by the anti-war group Moveon.org on him as ’General Betray Us.’
“Obama went on the next day to brazenly co-opt one of Bush’s signature policy innovations, funneling public money to the social services of religious organizations. He ended the week by dropping his previous long-held position on a fixed timetable for withdrawal from Iraq in favor of a ’refined’ strategy of withdrawal as soon as prudently possible after consultations with generals on the ground. …
“And there’s a point to the successive shifts: Obama is slowly undermining every conceivable reason to vote for Republican candidate John McCain.”
Oil blitz
When Congress returns this week from the July 4 holiday, “House and Senate Republicans plan to pounce on the energy and gasoline price issue, pushing Democrats to join in calling for more oil drilling,” Paul Bedard writes in the Washington Whispers column at www.usnews.com.
“That’s all you’re going to hear about [this] week,’ said a top Senate GOP aide. ’People want something done about this.’ Republican officials tell us that their members are getting an earful from constituents back home and that many who used to oppose drilling in ocean waters or Alaska are now open to it,” Mr Bedard said.
“Polls also show that trend. When Congress returns, the GOP will push its Gas Price Reduction Act to expand supplies, fund development of electric cars, limit oil speculation, and even study drawing oil from shale. The GOP officials said that the addition of targeting oil speculators and pushing for electric cars is a ’tip of the hat to the Democrats’ who are focused on conservation and punishing speculators.
“Also look for the Republicans to portray opposition from Democratic leaders to their plan as radicals. They will most likely cite comments this [past] week from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who said on Fox Business Network, ’Coal makes us sick. Oil makes us sick. It’s global warming. It’s ruining our country. It’s ruining our world.’ Said the Senate aide, ’With $4 gas and rising, people just don’t think like that anymore.’ ”
Reid’s rhetoric
“Nevada’s own Harry Reid has become a YouTube sensation for continually combining his gloomy disposition with rhetoric that makes even his most partisan supporters cringe,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal said Sunday in an editorial.
“His latest hilarious monologue came a few days ago on the Fox Business channel when, in trying to defend the exorbitant costs (and federal subsidies) of renewable power, he asserted that money is overrated in debating the country’s energy policy.
“’Coal makes us sick. Oil makes us sick. It’s global warming. It’s ruining our country. It’s ruining our world,’ Sen. Reid blurted out between pregnant pauses. ’We’ve got to stop using fossil fuels.’
“Yes, the resources that not only drive the world’s economy and rising standard of living, but make life and prosperity possible in his political base of Las Vegas, are ’ruining our country’ and ’ruining our world.’
“By Thursday afternoon, the video clip had close to 400,000 hits on YouTube. Like an ’American Idol’ reject who has no idea he can’t sing, Sen. Reid serves up speechification that crashes and burns in spectacular fashion. Doesn’t the Democratic Party have its own Simon Cowell, someone with enough common sense to cut off the Slipup from Searchlight before he finds all new ways to embarrass his home state?
“Funny thing about coal and oil. Before they began transforming Americans’ everyday lives by providing electricity and transport that didn’t require a horse, average citizens trudged though life with mouths half-full of teeth, fortunate to live past age 40. Far from making us sick, they’ve powered advances that have extended the country’s collective life expectancy to about 80, helped eliminate hard-core poverty and made us the wealthiest nation in the history of the planet.”
Ich bin ein …
Sen. Barack Obama’s planned European tour might make a major whistlestop in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, a German news outlet reports.
Germany’s ambassador to Washington, Klaus Scharioth, has reportedly worked for weeks to convince Mr. Obama’s campaign that the candidate’s only large European appearance should take place in Berlin, Spiegel International reports at www.spiegel.de.
“Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier talked to Mr. Obama by phone in April and learned that he might visit Germany. In the meantime, according to Spiegel sources, Mr. Steinmeier’s staff has set plans in motion for an Obama appearance in the German capital by the end of July,” wrote the German magazine.
“Both Mr. Steinmeier and his boss, Chancellor Angela Merkel, have expressed willingness to meet Mr. Obama. A member of Mr. Obama’s campaign has already met with Berlin’s mayor, Klaus Wowereit, and the Secret Service has reportedly started to investigate security questions surrounding a visit. No location has been announced, but the Berlin Senate has reportedly been asked whether Obama can speak in front of the Brandenburg Gate, where former U.S. President Ronald Reagan gave a famous speech in 1987. Reagan made a show of asking then-Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev to ’tear down’ the Berlin Wall.”
Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes.com.
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