Obama's gonna drill us real good....

So Obama is magnanimously going to allow some state to drill offshore for oil. Let us all bow and scrape before The One for allowing us to dig in our own backyards:

The Obama administration will approve significant oil and gas exploration off America’s coasts, including a possible sale two years from now of leases off Virginia’s coast, administration officials said Wednesday.

Strange, especially coming on the heels of a three-year offshore drilling ban announced earlier this month. So what's Obama up to here?

-With the evidence overwhelmingly against him, he's making a tactic admission that Sarah Palin was right about energy policy all along. However, since he's a sore winner, he's continuing his ban on most new drilling/development in Alaska. Take that, bitch!
Hmmm...could be - he's shown this type of petulance before - but not quite sure this is it....

-He realizes this is the easiest way to fix the economy. Offshore drilling would bring revenue into both the state and federal coffers, provide tens of thousands of well-paying blue-collar jobs, and lower energy prices, thus leaving Americans with more disposable income to spend.
Hmmm...entirely logical and commonsensical. Exactly why this cannot be Obama's motivation. Plus, it would mean he would have to drop his ideological hatred of all things carbon-based. To date, he hasn't acted once outside of his ideological dogma. Why would he start here, with his second greatest foe (Israel being first)?

-A ploy to make cap and trade more palatable? Ah ha...try this scenario on for size:

President makes big speech about allowing exploration for gas and oil, talks about how it would create jobs and lower fuel prices. Then slams the nation with cap and trade bill, but claims any hikes in taxes or energy costs would be offset by increased domestic exploration. Points out any job losses in the coal business can be made up in the offshore drilling business. Repeats incessantly how angry environmentalists are with him for lifting drilling ban, in an effort to show cap and trade isn't just another left-wing scam. Gets one or two key Senatorial suckers and Congressman from key coal-producing states to go along with him, media calls all opponents of the bill racists, and cap and trade becomes the law of the land.

I'd bet my last drop of gasoline on motive #3. After all, it's pretty common knowledge that ObamaCare will fall under its own crushing weight. Selling "carbon credits" at $500 billion or so per year would certainly help keep some liberal social welfare programs afloat, right? Plus, cap and trade would essentially give Obama and the Democrats complete control over the productive capability of the economy. And seeing how they've already seized control of the the auto-making business, the banking industry, the entire medical establishment, as well as the disbursement of student loans, how can they avert their eyes from the largest apple on the tree?

Drill today, get "capped" tomorrow. Socialism writ large, from brainpans quite small....

Update: Uh-huh:

President Barack Obama deserves credit for his political savvy: On the same day that he has the EPA initiate a regulatory chain reaction that will shackle the American economy, the President announces that the Department of the Interior will facilitate expanded offshore drilling. Talk about a slight of hand.

....almost 2/3 of Virginians — including Governor Bob McDonnell and virtually the entire Congressional delegation — support drilling offshore in the state’s waters. Obama’s plan would allow leasing off the Old Dominion, but that’s about all.

And while all the talking heads are chattering about Obama’s supposed pragmatism, the EPA will release today its final rule to allow California to regulate greenhouse gases from automobiles under the Clean Air Act. That’s the real story, because once a “pollutant” (remember, we are talking about carbon dioxide, the stuff we exhale) is regulated under the Clean Air Act, it becomes subject to further and further regulation. The President will have the power (the obligation, according to well funded environmental lawyers) to regulate anything larger than a mansion — your small business, your office complex, your apartment building.

Get ready for the green police.