I guess we can take the "He supports the XL" ...

[Arkana]

17. No, because if he wanted it he'd have approved it.

And that would not have taken any political calculus. If the President and the Democrats thought they'd gain more votes than they'd lose by approving the Keystone pipeline, they would have done it. Now.

Their polling is telling them that this is the driving issue for a lot of Democrats, and even if the President personally wanted the pipeline he'd be stupid not to realize that vetoing it is the politically smart thing. Like it or not, the Democrats are fighting an uphill battle--we're trying to win Senate elections in a lot of traditionally red states, and right now our BEST chance of a pickup? Unseating the goddamn Senate Minority Leader. Like it or not, this is how we keep those candidates out of trouble.

Doing it now would hurt Dems in November in oil/gas states, a lot of which have Senators on the hot seat that are defending their position. Ergo, he's waiting till after. Political? Yes. Hard to swallow? Yes. Are you going to get the result you want? Most likely.

So why does it bother you?