not a Friedman fan but i agree he is on re palin/mccain making choices putting them clearly in the bush/cheney/ big oil camp; drill, drill, drill + global warming denier just like big oil!

Great editorial.

One could substitute a number of countries for "Russia"...

Palin’s nomination for vice president and her desire to allow drilling in the Alaskan wilderness “reminded me of a lunch I had three and half years ago with one of the Russian trade attachés,” global trade consultant Edward Goldberg said to me. “After much wine, this gentleman told me that his country was very pleased that the Bush administration wanted to drill in the Alaskan wilderness. In his opinion, the amount of product one could actually derive from there was negligible in terms of needs. However, it signified that the Bush administration was not planning to do anything to create alternative energy, which of course would threaten the economic growth of Russia.”