For The Last Time, Anything You put on that 'Prompter, President Burgundy Will Read

Ed Morrissey writes, “Obama’s 2008 campaign fueled by rising gas prices”:

Andrew Kaczynski must be Barack Obama’s worst nightmare. While he and Nancy Pelosi try to find scapegoats for rapidly-rising gas prices, the BuzzFeed researcher is making Obama eat his own words … from 2008. When Obama ran for President, he attacked George Bush and John McCain for increased fuel costs and promised an end to reliance on foreign oil in order to bring prices back down.

While Ed has some additional examples of Obama’s 2008 ads that Kaczynski is highlighting, I’ll discuss the two favorites of my own in a moment. But first, with Tim Geithner now suggesting it’s time to tap America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves, from August of 2008, here’s a round-up of then-Senator Obama’s many “forgainst it” viewpoints on the pros and cons of this decision:

In August 2005, Obama agreed with George Bush’s decision to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to buffer the economy from the effects of Hurricane Katrina. However, Obama warned that such actions should only take place in times of real emergency (emphases mine):

I agree with the President’s decision to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help replenish supply shortages resulting from Hurricane Katrina. Nearly all oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico has been shut down, and releasing this oil will help increase production and stabilize prices. However, I do believe that this tragedy makes it very clear that that the reserve should only be used in the event of an emergency, and that we shouldn’t be tapping the reserve to provide a small, short-term decrease in gas prices.

And again last month, in St. Louis on July 7th:

I do not believe that we should use the strategic oil reserves at this point. I have said and, in fact, supported a congressional resolution that said that we should suspend putting more oil into the strategic oil reserve, but the strategic oil reserve, I think, has to be reserved for a genuine emergency. You have a situation, let’s say, where there was a major oil facility in Saudi Arabia that was destroyed as a consequence of terrorist acts, and you suddenly had huge amounts of oil taken out of the world market, we wouldn’t just be seeing $4-a-gallon oil. We could see a situation where entire sectors of the country had no oil to function at all. And that’s what the strategic oil reserve has to be for.

Today, we discovered what Barack Obama considers a genuine emergency — a drop in the polls:

Democrat Barack Obama called today for tapping the nation’s strategic oil reserves to help drive down gasoline prices, a shift from his previous position on the issue.

The reversal is the second refinement in Obama’s energy policy. Last week, he said that he would reluctantly consider accepting some offshore oil drilling. Obama had previously said he opposed such drilling, which is strongly backed by rival John McCain, who has urged that states be allowed to decide whether to drill.

Obama changed his position to protect Nancy Pelosi, who demanded a release from the SPR rather than allowing a debate and a vote on the House floor on increased domestic drilling.

OK, back to the video clips. First up, drill baby, drill! I believe the ad below is from early August of 2008, based on how it dovetails with this news report. Which would mean that nearly a month before then-Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin was chosen to be John McCain’s running mate, Obama sounds positively Palinesque as he panders to Alasksan voters, promising them a natural gas pipeline:

And then, in perhaps the most ironic ad, here’s another clip of Obama in early August of 2008 promising Canadians a pipeline of their own:

Well, so much for that idea.

Particularly in the clip aimed at Alaskan voters, with its large close-up on the- Sen. Obama’s face, you can see Obama’s eyes flick back and forth as he scans his teleprompter. And like Will Ferrell’s Ron Burgundy character in Anchorman, President ~~Burgundy~~ Obama will read just about anything you put in that ‘prompter. (No matter how shameless it makes him look later.)

Or to put it another way, as Jim Geraghty likes to say, all of Barack Obama’s promises come with an expiration date — all of them.

(Well, almost all of them.)

Update: Obama in 2012: “It’s easy to make phony promises.” Indeed it is, Mr. President, indeed it is.

And one more: Then: “I love lamp.” Now: “We need more moon shot!”