Obama's responds to offshore drilling plans

By GottaLaff

I refused to use CNN's headline (Obama defends offshore oil drilling policy change) since it implies it was not only a policy change, but morphed right into the ever-popular, biased "flip flop".

Sen. Barack Obama responded Saturday to criticism that he flip-flopped on his position opposing offshore oil drilling.

See? There it is. Flip-flop. CNN made sure to include that in their neutral, unbiased post. Note the absence of the words "compromise", "reaching across the aisle", and "listening to Americans". But "flip-flopping" is prominently featured in their lead sentence. Obama:

But on Saturday morning, Obama said this "wasn't really a new position."

"I made a general point about the fact that we need to provide the American people some relief and that there has been constructive conversations between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate on this issue so I applaud them on that but I am not ready to sign off on any particular approach or proposal because I think these are very important issues," he said during a press conference in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Obama added: "What I will not do, and this has always been my position is to support a plan that suggests this drilling is the answer to our energy problems. If we've got a plan on the table that I think meets the goals that America has to set and there are some things in there that I don't like then obviously that's something that you know I would consider because that's the nature of how we govern in a democracy." [...]

But Friday, Obama admitted that something is better than nothing and praised a bipartisan energy plan from the Senate that combines alternative energy innovation, financial, nuclear energy and drilling proposals. He noted he is still skeptical about drilling's potential to lower gas prices or reduce dependence on foreign oil.

"The Republicans and the oil companies have been really beating the drums on drilling," Obama said in the interview with the Florida paper, "and so we don't want gridlock. We want to get something done."

Of course, the McDrilling camp claimed that Obama softened because of McDrilling's leadership.

I haven't seen anything mentioned about McDrilling's campaign being based entirely on flip-flops, have you?