Rich, although I’ve got no particular brief for the ANWR, I think it would be a political mistake for McCain to reverse himself over the fate of that particular piece of swamp. Like it or not, it has established some kind of status as an environmentalist icon. As such it’s a shrine of the new civic religion, and fighting for the right to “desecrate” it will only give ammunition to those who argue (wrongly) that boosting the US drilling program is inevitably an environmental bad. Winning a battle is often a matter of choosing the right battlefield — and the ANWR is not that battlefield. Incidentally, while on the topic of drilling, I note that the Democrats are peddling the idea that McCain is in the pocket of big oil, in which case, I think, it’s time to return to the topic of Obama and big ethanol.