GOP Nominee
Former Candidates
Rasmussen Offshore Drilling Survey
“In order to reduce the price of gas, should drilling be allowed in offshore oil wells off the coasts of California, Florida, and other states?”
- Yes 67%
- No 18%
- Not sure 15%
Conservative and moderate voters strongly support this approach, while liberals are more evenly divided (46% of liberals favor drilling, 37% oppose).
Sixty-four percent (64%) of voters believe it is at least somewhat likely that gas prices will go down if offshore oil drilling is allowed, although 27% don’t believe it. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of conservatives say offshore drilling is at least somewhat likely to drive prices down. That view is shared by 57% of moderates and 50% of liberal voters.
Nearly all voters (95%) are worried about rising gas and energy prices, with 79% very concerned and 16% somewhat concerned.
85% of Republicans are in favor of offshore drilling as opposed to 57% of Democrats and 60% of unaffiliated voters. Those who call themselves conservatives favor such drilling 84% to 46% of liberals and 59% of self-designated moderates.
African-American voters are less supportive of such drilling than whites – 58% to 71%.
Women are more skeptical than men about the impact such drilling will have on gas prices: Nearly one out of three male voters (32%) say prices are very likely to go down, a view shared by only 23% of women.
Four out of five Republicans (79%) think prices are likely to fall thanks to offshore drilling, a view shared by only 55% of Democrats. Sixty percent (60%) of unaffiliated voters expect it to happen.
And, with this necessary political cover to move rightward on domestic exploration…
June 17th, 2008 at 10:37 am
That’s comparable to the 57% that Gallup found (http://www.gallup.com/poll/107542/Majority-Americans-Support-Price-Controls-Gas.aspx)
June 17th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Expect those numbers to go up as Gas prices get higher.
In a related not Gov. Crist does support drilling off of Florida now. I guess he wants that Veep slot.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:42 am
#2:
That traitorous SOB. My God, the man’s waffling on his positions makes John Kerry look principle.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Charlie Crist would be a fantastically awful VP, but if his ambition allows us to drill off the coast of Florida….well, that’s a bonus.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:50 am
#4:
Don’t kid yourself, Crist couldn’t care less about drilling off Florida. He is obsessed with becoming VP
that it drives everything he does. If McCain came out for giving ice cream to every American kid, Crist would
be hijacking the ice cream truck and passing out ice cream in Miami.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:54 am
God I’m glad McCain is finally on the winning side of a big issue. This is a great issue both for the base and the wider electorate.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Here’s some encouraging new polling data from the eco-friendly, liberal left coast:
SurveyUSA
San Diego metropolitan area
Would you support? Or oppose oil drilling off the California coast?
Support 53%
Oppose 35%
Has the current price of gasoline led you to change your views on drilling for oil? Or have your views remained the same?
Changed Views 45%
Remained the Same 49%
Survey USA
California
Do you think building new nuclear power plants is a good way? Or a bad way? to reduce dependence on fossil fuels?
Good Way 45%
Bad Way 34%
Not sure 21%
Would you support? Or Oppose the building of additional nuclear power plants in California?
Support 47%
Oppose 35%
June 17th, 2008 at 11:00 am
On the subject of Crist, here are more reasons he should be crossed off the list:
From yesterday’s Orange County Register…
We know who McCain shouldn’t pick
Crist. Oy. Brought in as the keynote speaker because he’s on the short list of potential McCain running mates, his performance Friday night truly did help his party. By showing unequivocally he would be a complete disaster for the GOP – the worst running mate since Dan Quayle.
Mr. Crist looks great: – silver hair, ragged shirt, baggy pa— … wait, that’s Mr. Bojangles; let’s try again: silver hair, warm smile, great tan, perfectly tailored suit of clothes, decent teeth. It’s when he uses his facial musculature to try and form cogent sound that he falls apart.
His speech began at 7:38 p.m. and was over at 7:47 p.m. – at nine minutes the shortest Flag Day Dinner speech on record. A couple of years ago, there was a post-dessert standup comic who took longer to spit out one joke. So that was the good part about Crist’s speech. Brevity is not always the soul of wit. Sometimes it’s just merciful.
But into that nine minutes, he packed two major gaffes and one cliché-ridden anecdote, a nice trifecta. First, he displayed his knowledge of history by informing us that Ronald Reagan “came from right here in Orange County, California.” (Sorry, Charlie, that was that other Republican president. Orange County was simply where Reagan’s ATM was located.)
Then, again seeking to, uh, connect, with the O.C. Republican establishment, he managed to invoke one of the most reviled names in Orange County: “Your governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is doing a great job! … I love him!”
Thud. The groans in the room were audible … audible!!! Obviously, Crist’s advance team had failed to tell him that conservatives see Arnold as a vapid, poll-driven sellout who faked ‘em out good.
Crist closed with an anecdote about the American Dream, about “a boy named Adam” who came to the U.S. without knowing English, who worked hard shining shoes, had seven kids … At which point, I wrote in my notebook: “It was his dad.” Close. A minute of porridgy drama later, we find out Adam was his grandfather.
OK, here’s an easy one, Charlie: How do you spell potato?
June 17th, 2008 at 11:03 am
#7, consumers in CA probably consume more gas than any other state, and they tend to have some of the highest in the country.
The house GOP and McCain are going to team up on this one. This may be the wedge issue they need for victory.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:07 am
#8:
Thank you for that. It was the right pick-me-up for the day. Seeing our governor exposed as an ignorant fool.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Why the dislike of Crist?
What’s he done in Florida to earn anger from the base?
June 17th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Crist’s (1) abortion position (2) inuendos about his sexual orientation (3) McCain can carry FL w/o Crist (especially w/Palin), and other factors, have long since removed Crist from Veepness.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:23 am
egs,
Off the top of my head…defending Al Gore’s propaganda film, asserting ‘global warming’ as irrefutable fact, supporting government mandates to cap greenhouse gas emissions, opposing any offshore drilling regardless of gas prices (well, until today), oh, and advocating financial reparations for blacks whose ancestors were slaves a couple hundred years ago.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:28 am
#11:
Where do I begin? Well, here are the biggest reasons
1.) Ran as a “law-and-order” candidate (he was FL’s AG) and when he got into office, gave felons their voting rights back
2.) Kissed Jeb’s royal butt when he needed to win the election, but has hacked away at Jeb’s programs as Gov.
3.) Has gutted local government. His “property-tax reform” has made it almost impossible for local government to raise $
4.) Supported reparations for slavery, even though most Floridians nowadays were from the North.
5.) Was scheduled to appear with Rudy 3 nights before the primary at the Orange County Lincoln Day Dinner. Instead
back stabbed Rudy to endorse McCain. Rudy had wooed Crist since Oct. but once the polls went for McCain, so did Crist.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Drill, drill, drill!!!
June 17th, 2008 at 11:30 am
It goes without saying that the oil drilling issue dovetails with you-know-who as Veep (and it ain’t Crist).
June 17th, 2008 at 11:30 am
(2) inuendos about his sexual orientation
Ted, take that back. We do not need to repeat untrue Democratic attcks in here.
“advocating financial reparations for blacks whose ancestors were slaves a couple hundred years ago”
Aron, in fact Lincoln proposed this and passed the law, but the succeeding President overturned this law. I like the idea. Why do you hate it so much?
June 17th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Bushboy, I personally have no problem whatsoever with Crist’s sexual orientation. I’m just citing it as a political factor that there are inuendos out there.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:36 am
#17, Because the individuals affected were ALIVE then. I don’t deserve any justice or injustice for what my great-great-great-etc-grandfathers did.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Bushboy,
Are you serious? You want reparations? Well then I want to get rid of affirmative action. I want to stop paying taxes to prop up those that ought to be able to fend for themselves. It’s funny how those that had to experience the real horrors of racism are the ones that complain about it the least.
And if Crist and black leaders want reparations then instead of focusing only on the American slaveholders of 200 years ago let’s go back even further and demand money from the black African tribal leaders that sold those poor people into bondage to begin with.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Adam, exactly, I want to replace AA with reparations! That is what Lincoln wanted. Lincoln wanted to give free slaves land, instead we implemented AA decades later.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Dude, the slaves are DEAD, and so are their kids. What don’t you get about that?
June 17th, 2008 at 11:45 am
I think this is a smart move on McCain’s part, to an extent, but he better be prepared with a damn good explaination for why this is different than ANWR because that question is coming. (& frankly, I don’t see much of a difference myself).
June 17th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Crist is a heterosexual Ted! How is that a political factor? Why would you bring this slime up? He is a good Republican.
In this blog, we have never discuss Obama’s birth certificate, or the story last week in the Jerusalem Post about his Islamic practices, why would we attack our own?
June 17th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Bushboy,
Shelling out money to a group of people that won’t step up to the plate and do for themselves after decades of preferential treatment isn’t the answer either.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:48 am
At least the leftists want to sacrifice us for the sake of people alive. “Bushboy” wants to sacrifice us for the sake of people who are dead for the sins of our great-great-great-etc-grandparents. That’s worse than outright communism.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Bushboy’s is a whopper of a position for a Republican to take. Someone who ostensibly supports the party of rugged individualism (setting the Bush years aside) wants reparations? Unreal.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Aron,
Was that the OC register in FL? I didn’t know they had one. I was a delivery boy for the OC register in California.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Many of us (in fact, including McCain) have ancestoral histories that may embarrass us, whether it is slavery or other issues.
Unfortunately, the legacy of slavery has not been solved by affirmative action. Clearly the guilt continues and is reflective in polls showing a percentage of the population voting for Obama because of his skin color, out of guilt. I understand this.
Maybe one day we can have an honest dialogue about the disadvantages our AA brothers ans sisters faces, but we are not ready.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:58 am
#27 and #28, we should not take $ or land away from ancestors of slave owners. What I am suggesting is that we as a society, ask Congress to pass Lincoln’s bill. The federal Government should provide land (public land) to ancestors of slaves, and in return, we STOP ALL AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PROGRAMS.
Please do not take my position out of context. I am not suggesting a Zimbabwe type policy.
Is that not fair? It seems to me to be a lot more Conservative than affirmative action?
June 17th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Bushboy, I’m just raising what I’ve read that others are raising re Crist, therefore being a “political” factor, not that I believe or disapprove of any sexual proclivity (and by the way, I believe that gays are fully welcome and definitely should be a part of the GOP).
What, should we be so PC that we can’t discuss what’s out there and perhaps having an impact in some circles of the voting public? For instance, discussing the fact of a rumor which is out there is not saying I agree with the rumor.
June 17th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
26. I don’t know, Communism is pretty dang bad.
June 17th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Ted, I have read on the web that Dick Cheney personally tortured aliens from Jupiter, in his basement, but obviously it is not true. I just think we should at least only discuss or publish threads that have at least 2-3 articles (redible news organizations) published to back it up, or hear about ti first hand.
June 17th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Bushboy,
My great-grandparents came to this country from Russia, Poland and Lithuania between 1903 and 1912, escaping pogroms and persecution. Please explain why I should be responsible to pay reparations to blacks today whose distant, long-deceased ancestors were slaves, but freed nearly a half-century before anyone in my family ever stepped foot on American soil.
Even though I, personally, do not support such compensation, a more compelling argument could be made that living survivors of the Holocaust (and their children) should be entitled to reparations for Roosevelt looking the other way until it was too late.
June 17th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Jason,
That article was from the OC Register in California. I, too, used to be a delivery boy, but for the Bergen Record.
June 17th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
#34, you are correct. Germany and Switzerland have paid reparations, and in fact the City of New York owes Jewish Americans an apology for using reverse affirmative action to keep them out of Universities.
The difference is, African Americans are our Brothers and Sisters, our fellow Americans. For decades Liberals have controlled reparations to AA’s, through affirmative action. This has failed.
Aron, you should not pay, we all should pay, no matter if you were on the Mayflower or just arrived today. Your family had the privilege of becoming Americans, it is a privilege, not a right.
All I am saying is that if we can pay compensaion to Japanese Americans for the WW2 camps, we can at least follow Lincoln and provide AA’s with federal land, in return for our crimes, but at the same time, STOP AFFIRMATIVE ACTION!
June 17th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Sigh…
When will we learn that drilling isnt going to solve this problem?
Drilling is only going to be effective if we majorly reduce consumption to
go along with it, and then only temporarily.
We need a national policy that is upfront about the challenges we face,
sets REALISTIC energy goals and pursues policies to reduce energy consumption
AND lift energy supplies (oil, nuclear and renewables). Anything less
and we will be returning to a pre-industrial level of existance.
We also need to come to grips with the fact that gasoline will never ever
get cheaper.
June 17th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
TIM PAWLENTY!! New SurveyUSA poll just released for Minnesota showing Obama beating McCain by a whopping 1 point margin! Minnesota is definitely prime for the taking!!
June 17th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
#37 PeaJay:
The last sentence makes far too many assumptions. You are assuming that there will never be lower demand, which
will lower the price. What if China collapses in economic turmoil? Or India? What if there is a political revolution
in China? A million and one things can happen to the price of gas. Too assume it will always go up is
economically naive.
June 17th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Bryan, Tim Pawlenty??? zzzzzzzzzzzzz
Come on, where you been buddy?
Its more than a slam dunk now.
Oil/Energy issue + Hillary/women issue =
______ .
June 17th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Drill baby drill!!! Nothing makes me more angry than the fact that we have waited this long. We should have nuclear power plants all over this country and drilling the oil that is in our territory. The environmentalists have heldu s hostage and now we are where we are years away from any solution.
McCain should pick Romney or T-Paw. Michigan and Minnesota would be an excellent price. Taking MI from the dems would make it very hard for them to win. We are going to lose Ohio. We should win Florida. Romney may be better though because he helps with colorado and nevada which are very close right now.
McCain is weak on the economy. He needs a candidate that can talk the economy in states like Michigan.
June 17th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
If Obama able to win in Ohio, he is going to pick up MI as well. MI is more democrat-leaning than OH. Obama will have patched up the hard feelings over the primary and built his solid ground game by Nov. MI, and esp WI and MN are hard nuts for the GOP to crack on good years (latter 2 went for dukakis) and this certainly is not a GOP year.
June 17th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
#39. Sure, plenty of events can conspire to drag down prices. But are we basing our energy hopes on economic collapse in China to bring down prices? Plus where is WalMart going to get all of their merchandise from? In any case a fall in prices doesnt necessarily make things “cheaper”. Economic collapse or atleast recession will drag down OUR incomes as well. Gasoline will still be expensive even if it costs half as much and you dont have a job.
Still that wasnt my point. My point is based on the geological certainty that we will max out our oil production relatively soon and then see year over year declines in supply NO MATTER HOW much we drill. Geology trumps economics. Shrinking supply still equals higher prices.
June 21st, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Ken Williamson makes so good points about this on http://www.posterspost.com.
He makes a good case for drilling.
The point is, we have no choice but to drill if we continue driving our vehicles.