Obama's announcement--essentially, that he would not necessarily reject compromise legislation that included some expansion of sea acreage in which offshore drilling would be allowed--is not a flip-flop. What he's actually doing is some leading, and showing something about his future administration.
He still expresses his view, that anyone who views offshore drilling as either a short-term or long-term savior to our petroleum issues is dead wrong. However, he's willing to bring them under the tent as long as they will commit to working toward "energy independence" legislation.
Obama's vote on the pending legislation is useful but not decisive, and I'm sure Harry Reid can count on it in most any situation. The key will be getting enough Republican votes behind moving forward to allow a bill to gain cloture in the Senate. Obama is giving a little push forward to a promising approach to get some kind of earlier start to what will become a tidal swell of legislation in 2009.
Just as importantly, he's saying that, if this issue does not get settled (and how could it?--it's still got to get by Bush and his veto!), he's giving an indication that he will not arbitrarily use his own veto to force his specific version of energy legislation through. A veto doesn't work that way with discretionary expenditures (except with special military appropriations, as in those for Iraq).
McCain can't make too much of Obama's switch, if such be it. He fell to the populist impulse on this issue just months ago, and he knows the realities as well as Obama.
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