7 Ways McCain Can Win With Energy: Point-by-point

This is an interesting article on ways McCain can beat Obama on Energy:

1) Stop talking about global warming. I agree with this 100%. Energy needs to be a security issue with a side benefit of stopping global warming. Middle Eastern and Venezuelan oil needs to be synonymous with repressive regimes and terrorist funding. So anything that replaces oil that we can make in our own country makes us safer. We should never be in the position to have our country crippled by a Gulf of Hormuz blockade.

2) Ban the color green. I'm not sure about this one. After all McCain is Irish IIRC.

3) Propose drilling in ANWR while standing in ANWR. I think drilling in ANWR is a dead issue frankly. The idea of standing in front of pristine wilderness and proposing oil wells to be drilled there just doesn't look good. I think pushing offshore oilfields in certain parts of the country is a much smarter short term solution.

4) Accuse Obama of wanting to launch a pre-emptive war on the American economy. This is another thing that could easily backfire. I think a narrative where Obama waging war against average Americans who are hurting would have more traction. The "cling to the religion" gaff won Hillary Ohio. Portraying Obama as out of touch with the common man and wants to steal his money to give to Hollywood fatcats sounds pretty good.

5) Stop blaming Big Oil. I agree with this 100%. Shift the blame for high oil prices to greedy speculators and foreign oil-rich dictators. They are also making billions from keeping oil expensive and keeping supply down.

6) Go with a populist "cost of living" argument. This dovetails nicely with with number 4 above. If Obama is made to look like he is giving the carbon credit billions to granola eating treehuggers that want to stop growth then he is vulnerable. So if McCain says that we will have a carbon tax but it is to benefit middle class Americans since it will reduce their taxes then it will be easy to sell. Financial incentive is a strong motivator.

7) Advocate a cheap Manhattan Project. This is a bad idea from a future competition standpoint. If we aren't the leader in the world for "green tech" then the Europeans will be happy to take that title. The Europeans will have lots of incentive to capture that market and it should be the US that leads the world in this. Any idea that creates jobs and insure our security in years to come. If we can spend billions on national defence we can spend billions to not have oil be such a critical choke point.