Distorting Obama

As we noted in a recent article, McCain bases his claim on a partial quote from Obama from a town hall meeting in Newton, Iowa, on Dec. 30, 2007. Obama had been asked whether he was "truly comfortable" with the safety of nuclear power.

Obama, Dec. 30, 2007: I start off with the premise that nuclear energy is not optimal. ... I am not a nuclear energy proponent.

If that was all Obama said it would not make him an opponent of nuclear power, of course. It would make him "Dr. Maybe," but not "Dr. No." And In fact, Obama went on to say later in the same response:

Obama, Dec. 30, 2007: There is no perfect energy source. Everything has some problems right now. We haven't found it yet. Now I trust in our ingenuity. ... I have not ruled out nuclear as part of that [$150 billion proposed energy research] package, but only so far as it is clean and safe.

Furthermore, the energy plan Obama released in October 2007 said: "It is unlikely that we can meet our aggressive climate goals if we eliminate nuclear power from the table."

There's no question that McCain is a much bigger advocate of nuclear power than Obama, who has taken a more guarded position. McCain has said that he'd work to bring 45 new nuclear power plants online by 2030, with the eventual goal of building 100 new nuclear plants. Obama has criticized that, highlighting his opposition to long-term storage of nuclear waste at the federal government's Yucca Mountain site in Nevada. "He wants to build 45 new nuclear reactors when they don't have a plan to store the waste anywhere besides right here," Obama said June 25 in Las Vegas. McCain supports going ahead with the Yucca Mountain plan.

The absence of long-term storage facilities is a key obstacle to building new plants. But Obama's 2007 plan promised that he "will also lead federal efforts to look for a safe, long-term disposal solution based on objective, scientific analysis." It's inaccurate to cast Obama as an opponent, and McCain goes too far when he portrays Obama as saying "no" to nuclear.

The McCain ad is on target elsewhere. It says Obama is opposed to opening up new areas for offshore drilling, and he is. And it says Obama is opposed to McCain's proposal for a three-month suspension of the 18.4-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax, which is also true. That "gas tax holiday," an idea that has been criticized by more than 300 economists, was to have started on Memorial Day, however, and has a near-zero chance of enactment.

The Original Dr. No
Footnote: "Dr. No" was the villain in the first of the James Bond films, of the same name, released in 1962. The fictional Dr. No had lost his hands in a radiation accident:

Bond: It was a good idea to use atomic power. I'm glad to see you can handle it properly. ...
Dr. No: My work has given me a unique knowledge of radioactivity. But not without costs, as you see. [Indicating his prosthetic hands]