So the advocates of offshore drilling -- which might include areas off the precious and fragile Outer Banks of North Carolina -- seem to want people to believe that such drilling would cause the price of a gallon of gasoline to nosedive. Bring back the good old days. Get all those SUVs up and running.

Uh, huh.

Politicians at all levels are shifting like the sands in some distant oil field. Republican presidential hopeful John McCain was opposed, and now he's not. Democrat Barack Obama seems to be looking things over, in terms of the degree of his opposition, which is not as absolute as once it was.

And on the gubernatorial level, North Carolina Democrat Beverly Perdue, perhaps anticipating a barrage of advertising by her Republican opponent, Pat McCrory, said recently that she would convene experts and have them assess the environmental risks of drilling. She has denied in recent ads that she is absolutely opposed. (Republican Gov. Jim Martin brought experts together once, a couple of decades ago. Their findings persuaded him to oppose drilling.)

Indeed, opponents of offshore drilling make a good case that drilling could hurt the fishing and tourism industries and would have no near-term impact on gas prices. They also point to the fact that oil companies have failed to drill in large areas where they already hold leases.

McCrory, a common-sense mayor of Charlotte who's more in the moderate Jim Martin mold than in that of extreme conservatives, is in a statewide race, and he's trying to win. OK. But McCrory knows as well as politicians on the national level know that the benefits of offshore drilling, off North Carolina or elsewhere in the Southeast, even if it should be wildly successful in finding oil, would be a long time coming.

At least the mayor acknowledged "the long run" in a recent ad. Some drilling proponents act as if gas will dive to a buck a gallon as soon as the first bit hits the ocean floor.

This entire dialogue would be more constructive if all candidates would take a more deliberate look at the big picture of energy policy instead of trying to score political points by manipulating the drilling issue.

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