Drill that Oil!

President Barack Obama has decided that offshore drilling is a good thing. Sort of. He's proposing that it be allowed off the coast of Virgina and in the eastern parts of the Gulf of Mexico. The point? To reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

This should probably count as one of the premier d'oh moments of his Administration. It is only common sense that if we get our own oil we won't need so much of anyone else's. But even at that, he's sending mixed signals by allowing some leases in Alaska to be canceled while scaling back plans elsewhere.

It's all ultimately about politics, of course. The president is trying to get his energy package through Congress and is hoping to get Republican support for it by appealing to a GOP issue. Plus, the new rigs are expected to produce jobs, and no liberal Democratic President is about to sacrifice jobs for environmental concerns no matter what rhetoric his party may employ at other times and places.

It may be too little and too late of an appeal to his opposition (both in the Congress and the nation at large) after He jammed health care reform down our throats but, again, politics is at work. If the economy begins to creep up noticeably and people start feeling good, none of that will matter either. Without a doubt, that is precisely what the Chief Executive is banking on in the months before November.