On January 18, President Barack Obama said no to a controversial oil pipeline called Keystone XL, destined to run from Canada across America’s heartland to deliver Alberta shale oil to the gulf of Mexico – oil which one source admitted months ago was intended for sales overseas.

Obama’s decision was the right one, but for all the wrong reasons. Unfortunately, no one is talking about those reasons, which means we as a nation are going to have to visit this dispute again, in a perhaps even bloodier fashion. And if we do so before election, it may make an extraordinary amount of difference. It may, in effect, topple a man who really does have the interests of America at heart (Ron Paul) in favor of a man whose interests and political will have appeared divided from the first.

The explanation for the decision is that Obama was given 60 days by political rivals (read Republicans) to make the decision: yea or nay.

He said no, but agreed in almost the same breath that the decision was not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline. This should be the first clue as to the real presence behind the curtain. It isn’t a great Wizard, but a small man made smaller by political exigency and a lack of support.

The second clue is Obama’s rumored remark that the decision will be revisited at a later date. This, my friends, is not the bold shout of our hero slaying of a great dragon. It is not even a shout, but a whimper, and may mark the end of a political career that leapt out of nowhere in true Arthurian fashion but then leaped sideways into obscurity.

The sad truth about the oil pipeline is that it never really promised to deliver jobs and prosperity, except in the mouths of a few who can be expected to lie as easily as they breathe. The only exception to that rule might be U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who said only that getting oil from Canada was likely to be “more comforting” than getting it from the Middle East.  

Obviously, no one is surprised that the evil genius behind this pipeline is none other than the oil and energy sector, including (not incidentally) Koch, which was active last year in trying to overturn one of California’s “green” initiatives, and has been instrumental as well in pushing a great many ignoble and pollutive energy options over the years.

As one group of pundits notes, it’s hard to see how Keystone XL – in enabling Canada to sell its oil to the rest of the world – is in the national interest of the United States. And sharper minds than mine have attempted to trace the (Republican) tentacles of the octopus (giant oil company TransCanada) back to its mouth, speculating that the oil pipeline is nothing more than a feeding frenzy amongst financial sharks.

And with that pithy sentiment, we rest our case.