Who Could Have Seen This Coming?

Breitbart.com:  China Readies $15.1 Billion Canadian Oil Deal. 

Who indeed?

Day One

The Romney Campaign has released its first television ad . . .

It sounds like a good day to me.

Smart Diplomacy Not Very Neighborly

Investors Business Daily reports:

Obama's neglect of our nearest neighbors and biggest trade partners has created deteriorating relations, a sign of a president who's out of touch with reality. Problems are emerging that aren't being reported.

Fortunately, the Canadian and Mexican press told the real story. Canada's National Post quoted former Canadian diplomat Colin Robertson as saying the North American Free Trade Agreement and the three-nation alliance it has fostered since 1994 have been so neglected they're "on life support."

Energy has become a searing rift between the U.S. and Canada and threatens to leave the U.S. without its top energy supplier.

The Winnipeg Free Press reported that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned Obama the U.S. will have to pay market prices for its Canadian oil after Obama's de facto veto of the Keystone XL pipeline. Canada is preparing to sell its oil to China.

Until now, NAFTA had shielded the U.S. from having to pay global prices for Canadian oil. That's about to change. . . .

Things were even worse, if you read the Mexican press accounts of the meeting.

Excelsior of Mexico City reported that President Felipe Calderon bitterly brought up Operation Fast and Furious, a U.S. government operation that permitted Mexican drug cartels to smuggle thousands of weapons into drug-war-torn Mexico. This blunder has wrought mayhem on Mexico and cost thousands of lives.

The mainstream U.S. press has kept those questions out of the official press conferences, while Obama has feigned ignorance to the Mexicans and hasn't even apologized.

In short, the summit was a diplomatic disaster for the U.S. and its relations with its neighbors north and south.

It should have been the easiest, most no-brainer diplomatic task Obama faces.

Instead, it underscored the Obama administration's indifference to anything more than its own political interests.

It's a shame the American media didn't tell us. Instead we had to learn of it in the foreign press.

 Well, at least Obama still seems to be getting along swimmingly with Russia.
Hat tip to Instapundit.

Jay Carney Lied About How the Keystone Pipeline Died.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney claimed, apparantly with a straight face, that Obama didn't kill the Keystone pipeline and that it's the Republicans that are actually to blame.

Will Obama Finally Answer a Question About Legalizing Pot?

Of course not!  That would involve taking a position, any position, when doing so might alienate a potential voter base.  And we all know the campaigner-in-chief won't do that.  Certainly not in an election year. 

How Serendipitous!

Obama friend and ally, Warren Buffett "stands to benefit from the president's decision to reject the Keystone XL oil pipeline permit.  Mr. Buffett's Bershire Hathaway Inc. owns Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC, which is among the railroads that would transport oil produced in western Canada if the pipeline isn't built."

And I am sure that he will donate every penny of his windfall to the government.  It only seems fair, right?

Blocking the Keystone Pipeline

Powerline has two articles explaining why Obama's Keystone decision is both an economic disaster and an environmental disaster. 

The eventual Republican nominee may be wise to consider this advice:  "If Republicans spend half their time between now and November talking about energy, we will have a new president in 2013."