Politics or Poppycock

From the Washington Post:

Sen. Barack Obama rolled out a proposal yesterday to curb speculation in energy markets, which his advisers said would help stabilize soaring gasoline prices.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee laid out a four-step program that would, among other things, close an “Enron loophole” that protects some trading in energy futures from federal oversight, his advisers said.

“I think everyone believes there’s too much speculation in the oil markets, and a lot of it flows directly from that particular loophole,” New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine (D) said on a conference call hosted by the Obama campaign.

The three other components of the plan, as described by Obama economic adviser Jason Furman, are to ensure that U.S. energy futures cannot be traded in offshore, unregulated markets; to work toward international regulation of oil futures markets, in cooperation with like-minded countries; and to have both the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department investigate the oil markets.

From the New York Times:

Senator Barack Obama on Sunday proposed tightening the regulation of oil speculators in an effort to ease record high gasoline prices and address one of Americans’ top concerns.

Mr. Obama proposed closing the so-called Enron loophole, a legal provision requested by that company in 2000 that exempts crucial energy commodities from government oversight. He also proposed preventing traders of American crude oil from routing transactions through offshore markets to evade American limits and working with other countries to better regulate oil-futures markets, and he called on the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice to investigate market manipulation and oil futures.

… Regardless, gasoline prices, and politicians’ frustrating search for solutions, dominated discussion Sunday by surrogates for Mr. Obama and Senator John McCain even as news emerged that Saudi Arabia planned a production increase. One Obama supporter, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a former energy secretary, welcomed the Saudi move but said on “Late Edition” on CNN that it would dampen prices only “a little bit.”

Obama supporters again assailed Mr. McCain for saying, in a reversal last week, that he now favors allowing coastal oil drilling by states that want it. “Senator McCain is basically following the policies of George Bush — drill, drill, drill,” Mr. Richardson said.

From Reuters:

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama offered new steps on Sunday to crack down on speculation in oil markets, saying his plan would help rein in runaway fuel costs. … Here are some details of Obama’s plan:

* The Illinois senator’s campaign said he would close the so-called Enron loophole that exempts some energy speculators from U.S. regulations that apply to commodities traded over exchanges. It takes its name from the energy giant that benefited from the law and later collapsed because of massive accounting fraud.

* His plan would require U.S. energy futures to trade on regulated exchanges.

* Obama is calling for more data on index funds and other similar types of investments to boost transparency of institutional players in commodities markets.

* He backs legislation that would direct the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to investigate proposals such as increasing margin requirements in the market.

* He would aim to stop energy traders from evading U.S. regulations by conducting transactions through foreign subsidiaries of U.S. exchanges.

* He would call on the Federal Trade Commission to expedite investigations of suspected price manipulation and direct the Justice Department to look at whether illegal activity has contributed to the run-up in oil prices.

From the Washington Post:

In the opening weeks of the general-election campaign, Sen. Barack Obama has moved aggressively to shape his campaign and offered a clear road map for the kind of candidate he is likely to become in the months ahead …

Obama’s early maneuvers suggest a clear understanding within the campaign of his strengths and weaknesses. He bought air time in 18 states, a sure sign that he hopes to expand Democrats’ traditional electoral map.

… “Any of the attempts to describe him inaccurately he takes head-on with the new commercial,” said Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama’s closest friends and confidants. “You begin a new campaign with an introduction. You can’t presume that everybody was paying attention during the primary season. So let’s start with basics. He describes his roots, his philosophy, his love of country. That’s a really good start.”

Jim Margolis, Obama’s media adviser, said that, despite the long primary season, Obama still is not well known to voters in many parts of the country. “They don’t know the full story,” he said. “They don’t have a complete sense of what motivates him, what are the biographical points of his life that have made him the person that he is today and what he wants to do as president.”

… The scope of Obama’s first advertising buy sent an unmistakable signal to McCain and the GOP that, at least initially, the senator from Illinois will invest money in states no Democrat has won in years, including Georgia, Indiana and Alaska. A recent poll for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee showed Obama within two points of McCain in Alaska, although well below 50 percent. Obama campaign manager David Plouffe predicted that Indiana “is going to be a dogfight” in the fall, even though Obama lost the primary there in May.

… Alex Castellanos, a Republican media consultant, said in an e-mail message. “This is not three yards and a cloud of dust. This is an aggressive leap across the 50-yard line to play on Republican turf.”

… At his meeting with 16 Democratic governors on Friday, the participants, including some of Clinton’s most politically important backers, gushed about the degree to which his campaign staff had sought their input, inviting them to Chicago for dinner, putting them onstage with Obama at a briefing and asking each governor to bring in a top political aide who can be involved in planning as the campaign progresses.

“This isn’t about ‘I’m coming to your state, and can you go do a photo op,’ ” said Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Another Democratic governor, Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan, said the level of contact from the Obama campaign has surpassed any she has ever received from a presidential candidate. “We’ve never been reached out to in this way,” said Granholm, a former Clinton supporter.

From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

The armies of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain have yet to arrive [in Ohio], but the field generals have been chosen, and both campaigns have set up the skeletal form of the forces that will do the kind of grass-roots, get-out-the-vote campaign work that could make the difference in a close election.

Four years ago, a swing of about 10 votes per precinct in Ohio would have wiped out President Bush’s 118,601-vote margin. That would have meant we would be talking and writing about President Kerry’s re-election campaign.

That’s how much an effective ground organization matters.

… In Ohio, the Obama campaign started the post-primary campaign with one advantage — Ohio’s March 4 presidential primary turned out to be a significant event in the contest between Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

“We’ve been through this before; we’ve put together an organization in Ohio already,” said state Sen. Eric Kearney, D-North Avondale, an Obama fundraiser.