Something for which to blame Obama

One post ago, I said I was going to wait and see until Obama does something before I get upset.  Now I’m upset.  I got around to reading the AP article announcing that one of Obama’s first acts will be to reinstate the ban on offshore and natural gas drilling.  That’s the ban that, when in place, saw our gasoline soar to almost $4.00 per gallon.  That wasn’t just a hit to every person driving a car.  It was a hit to every school district running buses.  It was a hit to every grocery store getting food to the shelves.  It was a hit to every farm using gasoline powered equipment to harvest food.  It was a hit to every flight moving people around the United States and around the world.  And on and on, throughout the American economy, at every level and affecting every person.

That same ban was also a huge blessing to OPEC en masse, as well as to its individual members.  It also made Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Russia and Venezuela very, very happy.  Just as the ban was a bad thing for us at every point in our economy, it was a blessing for those who loath us.

And what happened when Bush let the offshore oil drilling ban lapse in the face of a Democratic Congress afraid to jink the election?  Prices plummeted, and quickly too.  Even here, in one of the priciest parts of America, you can now get gasoline for less then $2.00 a gallon if you’re willing to drive a few miles from the pricier sections of Marin.  My local Safeway has sales on everything.  As their shipping costs have dropped, they’re racing to pass the savings on to customers.  It’s not beneficence on Safeway’s part.  It’s good business.  If they can drop their prices faster than their competitors can, they get the customers.

And just as we in America are benefiting hugely from the mere possibility of offshore drilling, the oil producing nations, almost all of which are hostile to us, are worried.  OPEC is talking about price fixing to keep those petrodollars flowing into Wahhabi coffers.

So what’s Barack Obama’s first planned move?  As I said above, it’s to reinstate the offshore oil ban, as well as to kill domestic natural gas production!  I kid you not:

President-elect Barack Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office, perhaps reversing Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas.

[snip]

On drilling, the federal Bureau of Land Management is opening about 360,000 acres of public land in Utah to oil and gas drilling. Bush administration officials argue that the drilling will not harm sensitive areas; environmentalists oppose it.

“They want to have oil and gas drilling in some of the most sensitive, fragile lands in Utah,” Podesta said. “I think that’s a mistake.”

Clearly, one of the things we as conservatives can do is remind hurting consumers every single day that it was President Bush who made gas prices (and therefore all prices) drop when he allowed the ban to lapse, and President Obama who made every aspect of our lives more costly.

And if, God forbid, some Wahhabi extremists launch a deadly, well-funded attack against the U.S. in 2009, it’s up to us to remind the American people that it was the extremist environmental policies espoused by the Democrats (Obama included) that funded that ideology and those attacks.

I was hoping that Obama would govern as a centrist, given his narcissistic need to retain power and popularity.  He’s making it clear, though, that he will govern as an ideologue, pandering to the base, and to hell with the best interests of America and her citizens.