Recalling a certain memorable speech that would've, could've, should've kicked off a new era of presidential leadership on energy policy, Thomas Friedman looks at President Bush's recent actions and makes a suitably sassy diagnosis in today's New York Times:

It's as if our addict-in-chief is saying to us: "C'mon guys, you know you want a little more of the good stuff. One more hit, baby. Just one more toke on the ole oil pipe. I promise, next year, we'll all go straight. I'll even put a wind turbine on my presidential library. But for now, give me one more pop from that drill, please, baby. Just one more transfusion of that sweet offshore crude."

Here, says Friedman, is what our president should be saying:

Oil is poisoning our climate and our geopolitics, and here is how we're going to break our addiction: We're going to set a floor price of $4.50 a gallon for gasoline and $100 a barrel for oil. And that floor price is going to trigger massive investments in renewable energy -- particularly wind, solar panels and solar thermal. And we're also going to go on a crash program to dramatically increase energy efficiency, to drive conservation to a whole new level and to build more nuclear power. And I want every Democrat and every Republican to join me in this endeavor.

Political suicide? Perhaps. But with all the talk of Bush trying to burnish his legacy in the final months, what has he got to lose? What sort of dire political consequences could possibly await President Bush if he were to flout the new Republican line on offshore drilling and increased oil production? He is, to a large extent, beyond political fallout. When a president's approval hovers in the 20's, the politics have fallen out already. In such a situation, one is afforded an opportunity few presidents have: to do something that has nothing to do with politics.