WASHINGTON—She’s blamed environmentalists for helping cause the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, accused U.S. President Barack Obama of using the oil spill to raise energy prices and urged the White House to contact the Dutch because “they are known for dikes.” Sarah Palin — the guiding light of the foundering Tea Party movement whose energy mantra is “drill, baby, drill” — is back in the national spotlight in the midst of the worst environmental disaster in American history.
And Democrats are likely grateful for it.
Even Bill O’Reilly of Fox News, the cable news giant that gave the self-styled hockey mom her own show and frequently uses her as a commentator, seemed taken aback earlier this week when he interviewed the rambling Palin following Obama’s address to the nation about the spill.
He pressed the former Alaska governor, considered well-versed in energy issues, to explain what she’d do to plug the gusher several kilometres beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico that has defied all human efforts to stop it for the past two months.
“The Dutch,” said Palin, who insisted the Obama administration was refusing help from foreign governments. “They are known, and the Norwegian. They are known for ... for dikes and for cleaning up water and for dealing with spills.”
In fact, it was noted following her interview, many foreign nations are contributing to the efforts to combat the gusher, including the Norwegians and the Dutch, although in the early days of the spill, when oil giant BP was wildly underestimating the extent of the spill, their offer to help was declined.
“There are foreign vessels out there right now,” Ken Wells, president of the Offshore Marine Services Association, said recently. Reports to the contrary, Wells added, are “misleading and misinformed.”
Jeremy Mayer, associate professor of public policy at George Mason University in Washington, called the interview another embarrassing moment in the public spotlight for Palin.
“The Bill O’Reilly interview was disastrous because in addition to having her facts wrong, she was also asked what she would do to stop the spill, and she had nothing, absolutely nothing,” he said.
“Frankly, Sarah Palin is one of the best things that the Democrats have going for them right now. She ignites a certain segment of the Republican base, to be sure, but she also ignites just as many, if not more, of the Democratic base.”
And on a sensitive and traumatic issue like the oil spill, Mayer said, her remarks are angering even those who are miffed at Obama.
“For all our criticism of Barack Obama and his handling of the oil spill, I thank my lucky stars every day that this woman is nowhere close to the levers of power in our country,” Todd Robberson, an editorialist at the Dallas News, recently wrote.
It’s not the first time Palin has found herself ridiculed for her comments on the oil spill. Almost two weeks ago, a Facebook post blaming environmentalists for the disaster was roundly greeted with eye- rolls.
“Radical environmentalists: you are damaging the planet with your efforts to lock up safer drilling areas,” she wrote. “There’s nothing clean and green about your misguided, nonsensical radicalism, and Americans are on to you as we question your true motives . . . it’s catching up with you. The tragic, unprecedented deep water Gulf oil spill proves it.”
“Drill, baby, drill” now made more sense than ever, Palin Tweeted.
The Treehugger environmental group scoffed at Palin’s finger-pointing but gave her props for having the nerve to suggest it.
“You have to give her that, it takes guts to seriously pretend that the BP oil spill tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico is evidence that ‘drill, baby, drill’ is a more environmentally friendly policy,” Canadian environmentalist Michael Graham Richard wrote on the group’s website in a post from Ottawa.
But he added it was also untrue.
“Never at any time before the BP oil spill did the ‘drill, baby, drill’ crowd advocate stopping offshore drilling and replacing it with onshore drilling. They wanted more offshore drilling and more onshore drilling, making the likelihood of oil spills higher, not lower.”
Nonetheless, Mayer said, Palin’s continued advocacy of “drill, baby, drill” isn’t hurting her — yet.
“It’s clear that she’s not yet paid a price for ‘drill, baby, drill,’ ” he said.
“Democrats don’t see any pay-off in attacking her for it right now, but if she becomes a real, formidable political opponent to Obama, you’ll see them use it in campaign ads alongside dreadful images from the Gulf, and it will be devastating to her. But so far, they’re keeping their powder dry.”
