I got a huge kick out of the words and the picture yesterday, as President Bush was preparing to leave for his "farewell summit tour" to Europe. When he was asked a question about high gasoline prices and how that might come up during his talks with other leaders, the President said, "We'll just have to convince our friends and allies that we are too dependent on hydrocarbons."

What a HOOT!

As if this president hasn't fought against all attempts to raise fuel efficiency standards on cars. As if this president hasn't catered to every interest of oil companies. As if our European "friends and allies" haven't suffered from extremely high energy costs for years, while Americans have lived wastefully, under the illusion that our resources are limitless. As if our European "friends and allies" haven't responded by creating excellent mass transportation, and living in small houses and apartments, and driving small, gas-sipping cars. (As columnist Tom Friedman put it, "Most European families have one fuel-efficient car that they don't drive very much.")

The tableau yesterday couldn't have been more effectively set up by an anti-Bush political satirist. As the President spoke about our over-reliance on fossil fuels, in the background was the enormous and enormously wasteful presidential helicopter waiting to fly him for five or ten minutes to Andrews Air Force Base, where he would board the enormous and enormously wasteful presidential jumbo jet to fly wherever his heart desires.

The President delivered his remarks with a straight face! Could he actually mean what he says? If so, a late repentance is better than no repentance at all, I guess.

I can't help but remember that the much-maligned President Jimmy Carter warned us that we were too dependent upon hydrocarbons -- 30 years ago. Those of you who are old, like I am, may remember that he advocated a project that would have rivaled the American effort to put a man on the moon: to develop alternate energy technologies. But what was the political reaction? "Defeatist!" proclaimed his presidential opponent, Ronald Reagan. "It's morning in America!" And Reagan soundly trounced Carter in the 1980 election.

What if we had followed Carter's lead 30 years ago? One can only wistfully imagine ...

Since Reagan so badly beat Carter, both Republicans and Democrats have learned their lesson well: don't tell the truth, if the truth will entail sacrifice and a change of "the American way of life." Pretend we can just keep going the way we always have.

Because this has been the dominant ethos among our elected officials, we are much the worse off.