Obama’s announcement yesterday of opening offshore drilling was met with strong opposition, and not just from the left, but even the right.

But what if there is something more sinister at work here? Chances are that Congress won’t go for the plan, so there really is no chance of it surviving without Republican support, yet Republicans are appearing to be more against the plan than Democrats.

Now flash forward to October. I can see the political ads now. We have views from the 2008 campaign trail, complete with chants of “drill baby drill” and then come back to present day showing Republicans opposing a plan to do just that. Talk about making the “party of NO” meme sticking.

Yes this could be a brilliant political move by Obama, but it is also a very risky one. Hopefully he is sacrificing some of his popularity to boost that of the Democrats. If they oppose the bill , then they will attract more of the base, while if Republicans oppose the bill, well that will be a big turn off for the “drill baby drill” crowd.