Drill, baby, Drill!

When you read these random thoughts you'll understand why I couldn't write a coherent post:

• I have been to the beach at Corpus Christi several times. It's nice, but often you leave with oil/tar all over yourself and your swimsuit. Drilling offshore there hasn't been particularly kind to the environment.
• A good chunk of the land opened up probably doesn't have any oil, anyway so it's probably not as big of a deal. If some oil/natural gas can be harvested that's great! It will mean more jobs and less money going to the middle east so I have less of a chance of a pay raise, err, wait a minute...
• Had Obama done this after a failure in health care reform my side would have gone absolutely insane. "Does this guy have any backbone? He cares more about appeasing Republicans than he does the people who got him elected!" Since it happened over healthcare reformed passed it is politically genius. Why? However upset someone on my side gets all Obama has to do is say, "Health care." Yes, yes, Obi-wan, you did what nobody before you was able to do. It also takes an issue away from Republicans. "We wouldn't be dependent on foreign oil if we had more drilling here" has been a popular attack by Republicans. At best this will not do much to chip away at the 12 million barrels we import every day, but hey, it's an effective issue and the president has neutralized it.
• I wonder if the "drill, baby drill" crowd of Republicans from Georgia and South Carolina will be as excited for it once the drilling is right off their shores.