If you follow polls, then they would have you believe that a majority of Americans favor offshore drilling for oil. Not so fast.

David Moore, a former Vice President of the Gallup Organization and Managing Editor of the Gallup Poll, has been guest blogging on Kevin Drum's terrific blog and he has written that the true story about offshore drilling's popularity is more complicated than that. Depending on the questions asked and if several approaches to the energy problem are offered, the results can vary. If the poll includes choices such as conservation and alternative energy, then offshore drilling falls dramatically in popularity.

What I want to know is why haven't Reid/Pelosi/Obama made this point publicly? Why have they allowed McCain and the Republicans to have us believe that most of us indeed favor offshore drilling, when in fact we do not once given the additional choices of conservation and alternative energy?

Do they wish to lose another close election? The messages need to come fast and furious, and often.