Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

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Colorado for Shale

This is not my field, but how would promoting oil shale play in Colorado? And elsewhere? Were McCain to promote it, would it, assuming Obama did not do the same, help him secure the state? Or, on the other side, might it hurt him more with green ideologues in the state than it helps?

(For balance, here’s an argument against oil shale). The key question, regarding the usefulness of oil shale, not the politics of it, seems to be how much technology has improved since the 1970s.

Discussions - 1 Comment

Why is it that the article you provide for ballance seems so much more the reasonable one? Might you very well lose people not because they are "environmentalist" but because they distrust ambitious federal schemes?

A play on oil shale seems something that China would be more likely to go for, and Obama could seriously maintain market credentials by opposing federal stupidity. It is one thing for Shell to make the effort, it is another thing altogether for the government to involve itself in a clumsy manner.

The question isn't simply how the particular play would play in Colorado...but how Machiavellian considerations of what would play in Colorado regardless of market fundamentals, would errode McCain's ability to sell himself with market conservatives.

It seems to me that a lot of conservatives have forgoten what fundamental idea actually defines being a market conservative: Opposition to particular fixes whose bennefit is apparent but whose costs are hidden and widespread(bastiat).

I would suggest that while you can statistically log roll certain issues in certain states, maintaining a certain logical consistency is more important in the internet age.

If McCain focuses too much attention on energy policy that simply seems to be a grab-bag put together to pick off certain states, don't be suprised to hear Obama come in and define exactly how he is pro-market.

Just as McCain can't really sell coal in Pennsylvania and be believable on global warming, it may be that comments intended to change dynamics in single state calculations will have larger negative spread effects, as they undermine the logical consistency of his other positions.

I don't have any way of proving this but against a logically consistent Obama, the best conservatives can do is a logically consistent McCain, which means not trying to log roll the VP slot for ideological ballance but rather picking a candidate who will clash the least with McCain's actual positions, another hidden argument in my opinion for someone like Lieberman.

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