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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2008-07-21

We're Winning the Economic Debate 

Before I try to defend that point, let me tell you what had me absolutely falling out of my chair yesterday. It was the Denver Post editorial page.

--First, there was resident crank Ed Quillen taking shots at a favorite old target:

In other words, with "Drill here, drill now, pay less," Gingrich has given us one of those "sound bites and commercials so short they can't communicate anything complex."

If only Gingrich would stick to writing fiction that is labeled as such.

By the way, I suppose "resident crank" doesn't narrow the list down very much when you're talking about the Post editorial room. But I digress . . .

--Then, there was the syndicated column on the Post pages by Amy Goodman spinning like mad to debunk the idea that nuclear power has to be an integral component of our future energy independence:

Sen. John McCain has called for 100 new nuclear power plants. Sen. Barack Obama, in a July 2007 Democratic candidate debate, answered a pro-nuclear power audience member, “I actually think that we should explore nuclear power as part of the energy mix.” . . . The nuclear power industry sees global warming as a golden opportunity to sell its insanely expensive and dangerous power plants. . . .

The presidential candidates are wrong on nuclear power. Wind, solar and microgeneration (generating electricity and heat at the same time, in smaller plants), on the other hand, are taking off globally,

Of course, in her column, Goodman only bothers to cite one--ONE--"expert" who happily opines against nuclear power; likewise, she never bothers to not that many countries around the world use nuclear power liberally to turn on the lights [France, for instance, generates upwards of 75% of its domestic electricity with nuclear power].

--And then, what really had me falling out of my seat, was this in-house editorial:

As this national debate on energy continues, more people have begun to link energy with our national and economic security. That's an important step.

The next, most immediate, step is for Congress to follow the president and allow for off-shore drilling.

Everybody, quick--forward copies of that editorial to Mark Udall and Ed Perlmutter and any other weak Democrats who actually don't want America to have its own supplies.

But when you step back and look at the big picture, here is why we are winning this debate: everybody is talking about energy. Anybody remember your Sun Tzu? Battles are won before they are ever fought, and the person who decides the battle ground wins most of them.

If this battle continues to be about energy independence and producing more of our own energy, Republicans will win. I think most Americans like the idea of conservation and renewables, but have no faith at all in their ability to actually fuel our economy; in other words, liberal environmentalism is a luxury, and we are not in a time of luxury.

McCain, Schaffer, Bush, Gingrich, McConnell, and ALL the other candidates need to keep harping on this issue--either their opponents are out-of-touch liberals, or their opponents will agree with them. Either way, it's our issue.
Posted by: Michael / 7/21/2008 03:58:00 PM

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