Obama assails McCain for flip-flop on offshore oil drilling

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By BY MARY ELLEN KLAS AND LESLEY CLARK | The Miami Herald

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Speaking from a waterfront park along Jacksonville's St. Johns River, Sen. Barack Obama vowed to protect the ban on offshore oil drilling Friday and blasted Sen. John McCain for violating ''the bipartisan consensus'' that has protected Florida's coastline for decades.

''The politics may have changed, but the facts haven't,'' Obama said, noting that McCain once favored the ban. "The accuracy of Sen. McCain's original position has not changed: Offshore drilling would not lower gas prices today, it would not lower gas prices next year and it would not lower gas prices five years from now.''

Read the complete story at miamiherald.com

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