Ye Ole Washington Game.

c. David Grim (taken 11/27/08)

It's kind of a shame for the credibility of the Obama Administration that they decided to go ahead and endorse offshore drilling a few weeks ago. It's similar to their 2008-campaign shift from opposition to tentative support for coal mining. There's not much he can offer to miner's unions in the wake of the West Virginia tragedy. Obama and his people are nothing if not practical. You can't accuse them of not considering the opposition's viewpoint. Their willingness to compromise their stated principals, and publicly acknowledge doing so, is at once troubling and refreshing.

I guess it's preferable to the discipline displayed by the Republican party. They stick to their guns, come Hell or high water. Their stubborn refusal to recognize anything resembling a change in facts on the ground can be infuriating for those who refuse to get in line behind their vast PR team. That's what keeps them in power even when they push policies opposed by the majority of the voting populace. They truly understand how to guide the public dialogue.

Still it might have been useful for the Democrats to have stood firmly against offshore drilling. As it is the Left can pound the terminally incompetent Palin for her own sloganeering, but they have to do so with the admission that their own hero capitulated to her followers' rabid cries. Obama once talked about "teachable moments", a conceptual perspective that seemed appealing at the time. It's really too bad that such opportunities too often become obscured by his absolute insistence on wiggle room. But after all, I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky to be able to take him to task for it.