First John McCain, then Newt Gingrich, and now president Bush — in an apparent about-face that puts him in the position of opposing both his father and his brother — has taken to peddling offshore drilling as the quickest way to ease consumer pain at the gas pump. As Isaiah J. Poole pointed out, Gingrich has even launched an online campaign, with a simple slogan: “Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.”

But the reality is more like, “Drill Here. Wait Ten Years.”