The conventional wisdom is that John McCain must distance himself as much as possible from President Bush over the next five months in order to have a chance at victory in November. It's only one of the many reasons that makes this week's inane offshore drilling love-fest by both men all the more befuddling.

Granted, McCain made his plea to lift the 26-year-old offshore drilling moratorium on Monday (and in doing so, did a 180 on his position from three weeks ago). But less than 48 hours later, there was President Bush this morning, calling on Congress to lift the ban in order to increase domestic energy production. Bush also repeated his call for drilling in ANWR, as well as access to oil shale in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado.

What's noteworthy about both speeches is how both McCain and Bush stressed the need for short-term solutions to the current energy crisis and skyrocketing fuel prices, and then somehow connected the dots to a "remedy" that -- if enacted today -- would take at least 3-5 years to have any impact. Offshore exploration is essentially the opposite of a quick fix.

But more importantly -- as Climate Progress pointed out today -- both Bush and McCain might want to take a look at a 2007 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), which examined the impact of offshore drilling on production and prices. Among the report's conclusions: The projections in the OCS (Outer Continental Shelf) access case indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030.

There are many definitions of "short-term", but in this case a quarter-century does not qualify. When it comes to environmental rhetoric, we can only for the return of the John McCain we knew way back in May 2008.