MAMA NINFA, HOUSTON, TX -- The Obama traveling press corps is eating dinner en masse at this wonderful homestyle Mexican restaurant while we wait for the candidate to finish two fundraisers.One cannot look at the Houston skyline and see the familiar skyscraper that used to house the corporate headquarters of Enron. Enron --> oil --> gas --> energy -->. The mind wanders and transitions don't grow on trees.
While we've been focusing on the race card, the Republican echo chamber has been sounding full tilt about Barack Obama's Jimmy Carter-esque turn as advice columnist to Americans about energy. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity spent part of their broadcast mocking Obama for urging Americans to inflate their tires to help conserve gasoline.
Obama had a point, and the auto industry recommends the same thing as do governors Schwarzenegger and Crist, but nevermind; the ridicule fix is in. An effective GOP shot.
Speaking of oil, Obama's broadside today against McCain and his associations with the industry ought to put in the context of the 2005 energy bill, which contained oodles of tax breaks for the industry. McCain opposed it for that reason. Obama supported it (a flawed bill, he admitted), for other reasons.
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