OK, here is my deal. There are many indicators that are saying that we have passed the world production peak of oil, including the ever-rising price of oil, now at $121 a barrel, food shortages worldwide, high prices of food in the United States, and the increasing trouble with the airlines (although some of this is due to max airline capacity, hit in 2000 and again in 2004). This threatens the way we live and perhaps even world civilization. So are the US Presidential candidates talking about it? You would think they would.
The truth is that I have heard just about nothing from any of the three of them about peak oil. Not a word. Michael Moore is now talking about it, and I wish he would make a movie about it. But not the Presidential candidates. Barack Obama is pointing the right way by saying that a gas tax holiday won't help, but he has never talked about it directly. John McCain came within a hair's breath of mentioning it. He said that the Iraq War was fought because of oil. If he meant the second one, he is correct. However, all the pundits and hypermediots ganged up on him, and he was forced to recant and say that it was about weapons of mass destruction. John, you blew it. You really blew it. If you had maintained a peak oil stance, I would have voted for you.
But right now as it stands, I favor Barack Obama and will vote for him in November if he is on the ballot.
However, Presidential Candidates, I am throwing this deal at you. Kenneth Deffeyes said recently that "My only hope is that a candidate, who learns from private polls that he or she is behind, will drop the oil bomb into the debate." I will vote for whichever candidate drops the oil bomb into the debate. It doesn't matter whether it is Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, or even someone else, provided they are of a major party and have a chance of winning. If you start talking about peak oil, I will vote for you. Else I will vote for Obama or Clinton, whoever is running and hope for the best.
So there's the deal, Barack, Hillary, and John. What you do is up to you, but the world depends on it.
