Obama faces defeat on pipeline as Dems defect

[Janice]

Obama faces defeat on pipeline as Dems defect

While much of the political world obsesses over Twitter fights and Seamus the dog, Barack Obama has set himself up for a high-profile defeat on one of the most important issues of the campaign.

The president has put his feet in cement in opposition to the Keystone oil pipeline. But on Capitol Hill, more and more Democrats are joining Republicans to force approval of the pipeline, whether Obama wants it or not.

The latest action happened Wednesday, when the House passed a measure to move the pipeline forward. Before the vote, Obama issued a veto threat. The House approved the pipeline anyway -- by a veto-proof majority, 293 to 127. Sixty-nine Democrats abandoned the president to vote with Republicans. That's a lot of defections. >>>

"We're right around the corner from actually passing it," says a well-informed Senate source. "Two-hundred-ninety-three votes in the House is a gigantic number. People want this thing."

The president didn't help his cause when he staged an odd photo-op last month, delivering a speech in Cushing, Oklahoma in front of huge stockpiles of pipes. Obama sang the praises of pipelines -- "It is critical that we make pipeline infrastructure a top priority," he said -- and made a big deal of his approval of a section of domestic pipeline that didn't need his approval. But he remained unyielding on Keystone. >>>

But Obama could prevail only at grave political cost. >>>

Meanwhile, the pipeline project is going forward. This week the company that will build the pipeline submitted plans for a new route through Nebraska, where much environmental opposition has been focused. And in Lincoln, the Nebraska legislature passed, and the governor signed, a new bill that would hasten state approval of the project.

The odds are overwhelming that the Keystone pipeline will become a reality. In the end, Barack Obama has mostly hurt himself by trying to stop it.

WashingtonExaminer

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The rats are abandoning ship. Every rat for himself! Meanwhile, our affirmative action hero is still tilting at windmills.

[Janice]

Romney on Keystone: ‘I will build that pipeline if I have to myself’

Mitt Romney drew a line in the oil sands on Friday, focusing on the controversial Keystone pipeline project opposed by the White House and saying, “I will build that pipeline if I have to myself.”

Romney blasted Obama on a range of policies during a speech to the Republican National Committee’s State Chairmen’s National Meeting in Arizona, but singled out the controversial project that would route Canadian oil sands south to Gulf Coast refineries. >>>

Romney pledged that he would expand drilling for gas and oil as president and would buy oil from Canada. He attacked what Obama has frequently termed his administration’s commitment to an “all of the above” energy plan.

“It does not seem like an all of the above energy policy to me,” Romney said. “And then I figured it out: The president does like all of the above. He likes all of the energy sources that come from above the ground. So anything below the ground he doesn’t like: Coal, oil, gas. We all like wind and solar. But we also like those below the ground.”

Romney went on to blast Obama on his foreign policy, military spending, and over education and unions.

“One of the most dangerous aspects of the road we’re on is represented by a president and party who unfortunately take their direction far too often from union chief executive officers,” he said. “That’s where they get their money, hundreds of millions of dollars, and that’s where they pay their obedience.” >>>

He also accused the administration of bowing to demands of the teachers union by shutting down Washington’s charter school program, the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program >>>

He did take a shot at Vice President Joe Biden, saying, “he is the gift that keeps on giving, you know, this guy.”

TheHill

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This may work out well for him. To offer these simple sound bites to the voters who are barely paying attention. Its a good start.

[Apache]

The rats are abandoning ship. Every rat for himself! Meanwhile, our affirmative action hero is still tilting at windmills.

Gee, imagine that! Politicians promising something people need, in an election year...


Show of hands if you think it'll get passed after the election. How many of those 69 dems are up for re-election this year?

[TVDOC]

Gee, imagine that! Politicians promising something people need, in an election year...


Show of hands if you think it'll get passed after the election. How many of those 69 dems are up for re-election this year?

All of them......

doc

[Bailey]

I am shocked they arent give him a win in a election year.