Shill, Baby, Shill

Over at The Corner, Ilya Shapiro explains Barack Obama’s U-turn on offshore drilling in terms that the conservative faithful can understand:

Recall that on the campaign trail in June 2008, candidate Obama declared that, “when I’m president, I intend to keep in place the moratorium here in Florida and around the country that prevents oil companies from drilling off Florida’s coasts.” (See video of that speech here.)

Today, however, President Obama announced plans to lift a 20-year moratorium on oil exploration and development in Atlantic coastal waters running from Virginia to Florida, as well as further activity off Florida’s Gulf Coast.

….To paraphrase John Maynard Keynes […] the facts have been rammed down Obama’s throat and so he had the good sense to change his mind. Well done, Mr. President.

Jeez, are conservatives really this gullible? Yes, Obama opposed offshore drilling in the summer of 2008, but he then famously changed his tune just a few weeks later. I was there! I remember him doing it! I was even sort of annoyed at the time. In August he hinted at compromise and then, talking about energy strategy in September, he said, “And that means, yes, increasing domestic production and off-shore drilling.” This comes via NBC’s First Read, which also had to refresh its institutional memory on this subject.

Hey, we all cherry pick. I get it. But you can’t claim that the Montgomery bus boycott was caused by the Civil Rights Act without getting laughed at, and you can’t claim that “the facts have been rammed down Obama’s throat” when his position was set 18 months ago and his interior secretary has been busily working on regs for the past year. Better spin, please.