In visit to oil rig, McCain bashes his rival

Criticizes opposition to offshore drilling

John McCain toured the Genesis platform yesterday in the Gulf of Mexico near New Orleans. Obama's campaign called it a stunt. (Mary Altaffer/associated press)

Republican John McCain went to an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday to drill home his energy policy - and bash Democratic rival Barack Obama.

"Senator Obama opposes new drilling," McCain said. "He has said it will not 'solve our problem' and that 'it's not real.' He's wrong, and the American people know it.

"We're going to achieve energy independence, and we're going to do it by using every resource at our disposal to get the job done, including new offshore drilling," he added.

He and his aides believe the pocketbook approach can connect with voters - and, in turn, suggest that Obama wants people to pay more for gas, food, and heating.

"Americans across our country are hurting, as we all know, because of the cost of energy," said McCain, who traveled 130 miles by helicopter to tour the massive platform after his planned trip last month was scrapped because of a hurricane and made uncomfortable by an oil spill. "Gas prices are through the roof. Energy costs have seeped into our grocery bills, making it more expensive to feed our families. Now as we prepare for the winter, it's time for us to be more serious about our home heating oil needs. . . . And that means we need to start drilling offshore, at advanced oil rigs like this one."

McCain said the oil platform he toured for an hour sits above a field of 160 million barrels. The rig produces about 10,000 barrels of oil a day.

Democrats, however, said that the rig, called Genesis, took 10 years to produce any oil. They also said the rig is a joint project of Exxon and Chevron, among the oil companies making huge profits, and pointed out that McCain has received a surge in campaign donations from oil executives since calling for more offshore drilling.

Obama's campaign called the four-hour excursion nothing more than a stunt. Obama supporter and former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack compared McCain's position to the "Beverly Hillbillies" television program where the main character - Jed Clampett - stumbles onto an oil gusher. McCain, he said, has "a Jed Clampett energy policy."

McCain opposed lifting the federal ban on offshore drilling during his 2000 presidential bid, but in June changed his position.

Obama has also softened his opposition to offshore drilling, saying that limited, environmentally sound drilling could be part of an overall compromise. But his energy plan's emphasis is far more on conservation and alternative energy - and on trying to tie McCain to Big Oil.

To that end, the Democratic National Committee yesterday gave reporters "ExxonMcCain '08" stress balls shaped like an oil drum - a riposte to the "Obama's Energy Plan" tire pressure gauges handed out by its Republican counterpart to mock the presumptive Democratic nominee for urging Americans to keep their car tires properly inflated to save gas.