Those of you who watch The Daily Show will already know that John McCain had planned to counter Barack Obama’s big speech in Berlin with his own media circus with an energy speech delivered after flying onto an offshore oil rig, ala President Bush’s famous “Mission Accomplished” speech.

You also know that a Hurricane conspired to rain on his parade, so to speak, and John McCain responded to Obama’s iconic speech in Berlin with a stroll through a small-town grocery store.

On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart speculated that McCain might protest “Why does God LOVE Obama?!” A better question might be: why does God hate offshore drilling. I can’t answer that for you, but I can tell you why McCain’s offshore drilling proposal infuriates me:

• It won’t bring a real change in gas prices
• It won’t reduce our dependence on fossil fuel like alternative energy
• There’s not enough oil off our coasts to reduce dependence on foreign oil

But what I really hate is that, in light of these facts which McCain’s team must now, they push forward, belying the fact that this is a shameless political ploy. You remember when President Bush was accused of trying to buy votes with a $300 dollar tax cut? Well, John McCain is offering you $2 or $3 dollar gas.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a solution availabe to him at the moment to follow through on those promises, and even if repealing the offshore drilling ban lowered gas prices, it would be the result of a loss in confidence amongst oil speculators, the real culprits behind the inflated prices we see today. However, the reserves off of America’s coast are a drop in the bucket compared to Middle Eastern oil fields, and as a result, any change would be temporary.

The McCain campaign is simply hoping, I expect, that the drop in prices from the threat of increased American drilling is enough to get him elected before the pendulum swings back. It’s deeply insulting to me that McCain believes that American votes can be bought for a few dollars a gallon, and deeply frustrating to me that it might be the truth.

In any event, it brightened my day to find out that a hurricane of all things, possibly empowered by global warming, ruined the moment for McCain.

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