The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Sen. Barack Obama said Saturday he is simply acting pragmatically in softening his opposition to additional oil drilling along the nation’s coastline, a shift Republicans say shows he is calculating and out of touch with voters.
Speaking in Florida, Obama insisted he still generally opposes additional drilling—as his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, once did as well—but would be willing to support it as part of a new bipartisan energy proposal that seeks to lessen dependence on foreign oil.
“If we can come up with a genuine bipartisan compromise, in which I have to accept some things that I don’t like, or the Democrats have to accept some things that they don’t like in exchange for actually moving us in the direction of actual energy independence, then that’s something I’m open to,” the Illinois Democrat said.
Oil drilling, a hot topic in Florida, has been a point of dispute between Obama and McCain in recent weeks.
“Sen. Obama says he wants energy independence, but he doesn’t support anything that serves that goal,” McCain said Saturday in his weekly radio address. “He believes every domestic energy source has a problem. I believe every energy source needs to be part of the solution.”
Source: chicagotribune.com via politisite
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