Republicans strive to turn oil into electoral gold

The Republicans are in the mire over the economy but by staging an election-year clamor for offshore oil drilling, John McCain's party is taking the fight to a suddenly defensive Barack Obama.

White House hopeful McCain and his party appear to have struck a chord with a hard-pressed public with their demands to throw open US coasts to oil exploration, even if the slick fruits of the endeavor would be years away.

Having for years opposed offshore drilling before changing tack in June, McCain said Monday: "We have to drill here and we have to drill now."

After a week-long Republican offensive, McCain's Democratic opponent softened his position at the weekend, offering a qualified endorsement of coastal drilling as part of a broader energy revolution.

But Obama, and the Democrats as a whole, remained adamant that any oil from expanded drilling is at least a decade away and accused the Republicans of political posturing for short-term gain.

"The economy has been a sea of bad news for Republicans and this is the first island of hope they've found in a long time," former White House adviser William Galston of the Brookings Institution said.

"I don't think the public view is we can solely drill our way out of this. But clearly the Republicans believe that they have a political advantage on this and they are determined to exploit it for all it's worth," he said.

The Democratic candidate went further than his Republican rival by calling Monday for the US government to tap its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, triggering a new round of charges by the McCain camp of political opportunism.

The oil debate has coincided with an avalanche of attack ads by McCain, and the results appear to be showing in tracking polls with the White House race now locked in a dead heat.

"The question of offshore drilling, along with expanded domestic energy production, has suddenly become the biggest political and economic wedge issue of this election," conservative commentator and CNBC presenter Larry Kudlow wrote on his blog, drawing new hope for Republican electoral prospects.

In a piece of political theater, Republicans this week have taken to a darkened House of Representatives to demand Democratic leaders recall Congress from its summer recess for a vote on offshore drilling.

Polls suggest two-thirds of Americans support lifting a 27-year-old federal moratorium on such drilling, with slender majorities even in states affected such as California and Florida.

In June, President George W. Bush lifted executive restrictions on such exploration and called on Congress to lift its ban on drilling in the outer continental shelf, as well as in an Alaskan wildlife reserve.

But Obama and the Democratic Party are portraying McCain as a puppet of "Big Oil" awash in campaign contributions from the industry, and say some of his top aides are former lobbyists for petrochemical giants.

"The oil companies have placed their bet on Senator McCain, and if he wins, they will continue to cash in while our families and our economy suffer and our future is put in jeopardy," Obama said Tuesday.

The Democratic counter-offensive also involves tarring McCain by association with Bush, who has dismal approval ratings in part because of an economic squeeze that has seen a wave of home foreclosures and job losses.

And opponents of drilling question Republican claims about the oil said to be lying untapped offshore, noting that energy firms already have leases to explore 68 million acres of federal land that they are not using.

But analysts believe that whatever the economics of the drilling argument, McCain has tapped into Americans' desperate desire for relief from sky-high fuel prices, even if those prices have recently retreated a touch.

"There is some evidence to suggest that some poll numbers were moved by that because it is something tangible that non-expert voters can see and appreciate," said Bruce Buchanan at the University of Texas, Austin.

But the political scientist added that Obama had been clever by issuing counter-proposals for a long-term overhaul of US energy policy that would include some drilling.

"He is trying to have it both ways, that takes the edge off McCain's attack. Then they call him a flip-flopper. McCain of course flip-flopped on that issue and 15 others, like all politicians do."