And here's a quick rundown of what happened.
During the 16-minute speech, the president, who ditched his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves in the desert heat, touted his "all of the above" energy plan.
Obama chided "some politicians" for not supporting renewable energy in addition to expanding domestic oil and gas production.
"These politicians need to come to Boulder City and see what I'm seeing," he said.
The president also made reference to the nearby Hoover Dam, which he called a testament to "the notion that we can do anything."
Honestly, it was encouraging to hear President Obama defend something that should be a "no-brainer". It's just saddening that common sense has become "controversial" for many media pundits. Here's probably the key takeaway from Obama's speech in Boulder City today.
Some of these folks want to dismiss the promise of solar power and wind power and fuel-efficient cars. In fact, they make jokes about it. One member of Congress who shall remain unnamed called these jobs "phony" – called them phony jobs. I mean, think about that mindset, that attitude that says because something is new, it must not be real. If these guys were around when Columbus set sail, they’d be charter members of the Flat Earth Society. We were just talking about this – that a lack of imagination, a belief that you can’t do something in a new way – that’s not how we operate here in America. That’s not who we are. That’s not what we’re about.
These politicians need to come to Boulder City and see what I’m seeing. They should talk to the people who are involved in this industry, who have benefited from the jobs, who benefit from ancillary businesses that are related to what’s going on right here. [...]
And each successive generation recognizes that some technologies are going to work, some won’t; some companies will fail, some companies will succeed. Not every auto company succeeded in the early days of the auto industry. Not every airplane manufacturer succeeded in the early days of the aviation. But we understood as Americans that if we keep on this track, and we’re at the cutting edge, then that ultimately will make our economy stronger and it will make the United States stronger. It will create jobs. It will create businesses. It will create opportunities for middle-class Americans and folks who want to get into the middle class. That's who we are. That's what we’re about. [...]
One of the main reasons I ran for this office is I didn't think that our leaders were doing enough to tackle the big challenges, the hard challenges, to seize the big opportunities. And energy is one of the best examples. We have been talking about changing our energy policies for 30 years now. When I was the age of these guys right here, when I was 10, 11, right, in the ‘70s, and my grandparents were complaining about long gas lines, we were talking about how we were going to do things differently. Thirty, 40 years, and we keep on doing the same stuff. We keep on punting. We keep on putting it off. For decades, Washington kept kicking the can down the road.
I don't want to do that anymore. I want to make sure when these guys are grown up that they're seeing solar panels all across the country. They're seeing American-made energy and American-made power. They're benefiting from a cleaner environment. They're seeing jobs and opportunity – that’s what I want to see.
While I was a little disappointed that President Obama didn't just say it today, it seems like he wanted to drop a hint about the kind of dangerous extremism we see in the G-O-TEA today. Come on, Mitt Romney is now repeating Rush Limbaugh verbatim!
And Mitt Romney has flip-flopped from acknowledging the reality of climate change to denying that reality and encouraging crazy radical right conspiracy theories.
No wonder why Mittens is now being called "The Etch-A-Sketch Candidate"!
Even conservatives at the Cato Institute and The Wall Street Journal have admitted that Mittens' "Drill, Baby, Drill!!!" plan would only fatten oil company profits while doing nothing to help consumers reeling from high gas prices if enacted. And even Fox News' poll revealed that most Americans are smart enough to realize that President Obama isn't trying to force high gas prices on anyone. And since even some Republican consultants have admitted that gas prices alone can't sway an election, the G-O-TEA candidates are now being reduced to peddling ridiculous, radical fringe conspiracy theories.
Again, here are the facts. Just last year, Mitt Romney himself admitted that America needs to take on climate change. And just this week, much of America has been experiencing incredibly warm, summer-like weather just as winter was officially ending. And just yesterday, Forbes posted an article noting big investors' growing profits from renewable energy projects! Oh yes, "the free market" is now determining that renewable energy sources like solar are now "bankable".
So this is the stark contrast that President Obama reminded us of yet again today, right here in Southern Nevada. Do we want to invest in our future? Or do we want to fall back to the dirty, inefficient ways of the past?
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