putin single handedly has:

1. financed the alternative energy boom here
2. created political pressure to drill here, now
3. ensured an obam loss/mccain win
4. probably cost the dems a majority in the house
5. drove all of europe into our arms (pun here)
6. provided justification for nailing iran
7. deprived the russian state/military of 10′s of billions of dollars
8. damaged severely the russian oil industry

the key concept is “acceleration”; we are moving away from everyone else at an ever faster pace.