I hate to defend him, but hitting him with a bad rap on a rare day when he’s doing the right thing seems a shame. Jim Geraghty and Rob Port are touting the first clip below from December 2007 as proof that The One’s changed his tune yet again, now embracing nuclear energy after having opposed it on the campaign trail, but the brevity of the vid made me suspect there might have been more to his statement at the time than just the portion shown. Digging around a bit on YouTube reveals two other clips, each also from 2007, that prove he was open to the idea of nuclear power at the time. Skip ahead to 1:14 of the second (“I actually think that we should explore nuclear power”) and 3:46 of the third, where he says nuclear shouldn’t be off the table provided that it can be done safely. In light of that, it could be that he was blowing smoke and telling the crowd what they wanted to hear in the first clip, but without hearing the complete answer I’m loath to pronounce him a flip-flopper.

Having said all that, I now feel the odd urge to atone somehow. If only there was some exciting business news to report on, perhaps involving this very website. Ah well. Tomorrow is another day…