Rarely do I like to comment on politics as it usually boils down to which set of lies or colored truth you prefer. For the record, I am an independent who does not care for either Obama or McCain for a variety of reasons that I will keep to myself.
However there are times when a politician or devoted person to either one side or the other makes a passionate statement that leaves a person like myself trying to figure out if the speaker ever listened to themselves. In the article, Bush urges Congress to lift offshore drilling ban there were a grouping of comments that made you scratch your head. When you went back to it later in the day, it is noted that the article was corrected.
What was corrected was a numerical claim and a large segment was removed from the article for questionable purposes.
To quote the first one: “Obama also said there is "no way that allowing offshore drilling would lower gas prices right now. At best you are looking at five years or more down the road." “
For Obama’s statement, the statements are truthful but when used in the context of the now truncated article they were used as justification to not do offshore drilling. That is a flaw in logic that has created this mess. For over 30 years nothing was enacted on an energy policy. If a candidate is going to make a position statement, 5 years from now would be the 1st year of their proposed second term. In business you set up 5 year goals. Doing nothing is not a goal it is continuing the problem of doing nothing.
But that wasn’t the doozy that wins the Are You Thinking? award.
"“New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, energy secretary during the Clinton administration, called it "another bad idea."
"You know this president, all he wants to do is drill, drill, drill. There is very little on conservation, on fuel efficiency for vehicles. Just last week the Congress failed to pass a solar tax credit — give more incentives to renewable energy, solar and wind. A one track mind — drill drill drill — that's not going to work," Richardson said.”
We do use oil for many more products and uses than just fuel for vehicles. It is factored into 128 non-fuel products that are in common use so the demand for it will not be tamed down just by focusing on consumer’s fuel tanks. So focusing on conservation and fuel efficiency is a misleading statement. Even if we drive cars that run on water, there will be a significant demand for oil that we could provide for ourselves. So don’t push that faulty logic. However, that is not the award winning line.
The claim of “this president, all he wants to do is drill, drill, drill” is unsubstantiated by his example of Congress failing to pass a solar tax credit. First, it is highly doubtful those in DC can ever try to pass a clean bill without some ugly unrelated item amended to it. Most importantly though is the really bad part in the comment. The Democrat party controls the majorities in the House and Senate. So it is the height of a horrid example to blame the inaction of a Democrat controlled Congress on a Republican President.
So for uttering those lines, Gov. Bill Richardson gets an Are You Thinking? award. For the AP writer and Yahoo, why did you remove it after it was published? Improper fact checking perhaps?
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