GOP blowing it on gas prices

Fate has handed the Republican Party the single most potent issue that guarantees victory in the 2008 presidential sweepstakes. It's presemptive nominee could be considered fatally flawed on the issue, and thus far all the party's leadership, except for President Bush (remember him?), act like they have rocks in their heads.

The issue? Gasoline prices, of course

Americans are outraged by $4-plus gasoline. They are tired of their money going to people that hate us and fund terrorists to attack us. They do understand the principle of supply and demand, and that if the United States produced more oil itself, it would have to buy less from these thugs.

And the U.S. can produce more oil. A lot more oil. It is the environmentalists and their handmaidens in the Democratic Party who have prevented us from doing so. In the name of saving the whales, saving our oil reserves for future generations, tamping down global warming--whatever excuse you want to use--they have refused to allow oil drilling on the continental shelf offshore in states like California and Florida or to drill in the arctic wasteland called ANWR in Alaska.

Barack Obama has already said it is impossible to drill our way out of the energy crisis, and in fact that he likes $4 gas prices, because it forces people to use less of it. This is not the message Americans want to hear, or will respond positively to, if given a choice.

Tragically, to date John McCain's Senate record has been one of putting in with the liberals, and voting not to drill either. He has inched toward saying the states should decide for themselves whether or not to drill offshore. What he needs to do is dramatically announce that we are in an emergency and that emergencies demand emergency action.

He should come out full bore (how's that for a bad pun?) for offshore and ANWR oil drilling, to let the free enterprise system of supply and demand bring down oil prices. All the liberals and their friends in the mass media are wringing their hands, that oil prices are entirely in the hands of Arab shieks and we can't do anthing about it.

Just watch and see what happens when suddenly the U.S. cuts its foreign oil purchases by one-third to one-half. Voila! Oil prices will come down. Wind and solar power? Oil from shale and tar sands? Hydrogen powered cars? Nuclear power? Yep, I think we should move full speed ahead on all of it.

But its oil that will make the most dramatic and immediate difference. The speculators that have a hand in keeping oil prices high don't need to see actual barrels of oil coming out of the ground--just the threat of it will be sufficient.

John McCain and the GOP need to get out in front of this one. The public believes Obama and the environmentalists have it all wrong.