John Kerry says Bush should "pressure" Saudi Arabia to increase oil supplies unless doing so would actually lower prices before the election.

John Kerry says Bush should "pressure" Saudi Arabia to increase oil supplies unless doing so would actually lower prices before the election.·

John Kerry

New-Wonk of Nuance

John Kerry is conducting a tour de force display of the "nuances" of his energy policy. The intellectual gymnastics he displays in the process have earned him the title of "New-Wonk of Nuance." Previously, Bill Clinton held the title, but it appears that Kerry has now surpassed Clinton's skill in denying that what he had said had said what he meant or denying that what he had meant had meant what he said when he said it. Some of his critics consider this process to constitute "flip-flopping" or "waffling," but those are mere warm-ups for the real event, which is describing such contradictions as "nuances" of intellectual analysis that may be beyond the mental grasp of most people.

On April 1, 2004, John Kerry blamed President Bush for the currently high price of gasoline. He claimed that if he were President, he would temporarily divert oil from our strategic reserve to immediately lower prices and promptly obviate the need to continue doing so by "pressur[ing]" oil suppliers to increase supplies. Kerry thus described what he would be doing if he were President now-- i.e., if he were the incumbent facing the politically unpleasant prospect of high oil prices during the months preceding the forthcoming election. He didn't say that he would divert oil from the strategic reserve until after the election and then attempt to "pressure" oil producers to increase supplies.

On April 18, 2004, CBS News' 60 Minutes broadcast claims by Bob Woodward that Bush had obtained assurances from Prince Bandar that Saudi Arabia would increase production by the summer of 2004 "in time for the election." Kerry then sternly asserted that any such "deal" would be improper. Presumably, he would not oppose any effort by Bush to persuade the Saudis to avoid increasing supplies until after the election.

I'm Kerry, nuancing* about
positions on oil that I tout,
like plans** I put forth
on April the fourth
to increase the oil that's pumped out.

On April the fourth I contended
if President, I would have ended
the drop in supply
that makes the price high
by pressure on those we've befriended.

However, on hearing the claim
by Woodward that Dubya obtained
from Bandar assurance
to end the endurance
of shortage, of course I complain.

To those who would wrongly perceive
my words as a flip-flop by me,
my nuance explains
I always hate change
that's disadvantageous to me.

All politicians "flip-flop." Some do it more than others; some do it less than most. Kerry fits into the former category; Bush fits into the latter. Kerry personifies the tendency of ideological debaters to seize upon whatever argument may seem readily convenient at the moment to support a particular tactic regardless of whether it undermines or contradicts the claimed goal or strategy.

This leads to the necessity for the flip-flopper to attempt to reconcile apparent contradictions. One method is to claim circumstances changed between the flip-flops. Of course, sometimes that's a perfectly valid explanation. Opposing invasion of Iraq before 9-11 would have made sense; supporting it afterward also makes sense regardless of absence of proof or claims that Iraq played any overt role in 9-11. However, flip-flops occurring without any intervening change of circumstances other than discovery that one's opponent has embraced a strategy one has ardently embraced require greater mental gymnastics for one to successfully disguise the incompatible positions as harmonious. Kerry's attempt to accomplish this is to characterize his positions as reflecting the "nuance" one finds in highly intellectual analyses of problems.

* I'm committing the sin of converting the noun "nuance" to a verb to denote the act of attempting to cloak indecisiveness and/or flip-flops in an aura of highly intellectual analysis beyond the mental prowess of one's critics.

** According to an April 1, 2004, Associated Press article published in the CapeCodeOnLine version of Cape Cod Times, "Democratic contender Sen. John Kerry said that as president he would stop pumping oil into the nation's emergency stockpile until prices fell and would pressure OPEC to provide more oil. A White House spokesman said President Bush was disappointed by OPEC's decision." (Emphasis added.) For an excellent analysis of this statement by Kerry describing his current policy to prevent, rather than encourage, higher prices from discouraging consumption of oil, see "The Flip."

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