Dick Morris can be slimy and smarmy, but he’s smart. This week he put his finger on an issue that Democrats need to think hard about: offshore – or, as the Republicans call it – “deep-sea” drilling for oil.

Clearly the Republicans have drilled down on this issue with some heavy-duty polling.

Almost simultaneously, John McCain, Elizabeth Dole, Richard Burr and Pat McCrory came out for drilling to find more oil.

Democrats – Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Kay Hagan and Bev Perdue – reflexively opposed the plan.

They note, accurately, that drilling now will not produce oil for years to come.

But that detail gets lost when people are paying $4 a gallon for gas. And that’s where Morris raised a point that raises the hair on my neck:

“McCain and the Republicans have finally found an issue – oil drilling – exposing how the Democrats oppose drilling virtually anywhere that there might be recoverable oil. Not in Alaska. Not offshore. Not in shale deposits in the West. The Democratic claim that we ‘cannot drill our way out of the crisis in gas prices’ begs the question of whether, had we drilled five years ago, we would be a lot less dependent on foreign market fluctuations.

“The truth is that the Democrats put the need to mitigate climate change ahead of the imperative of holding down gasoline prices at the pump. If there was ever a fault line between elitist and populist approaches to a problem, this is it. In fact, liberals basically don’t see much wrong with $5 gas. Many have been urging a tax to achieve precisely this level, just like Europe has done for decades.

“Obama said that he was unhappy that there was not a period of ‘gradual adjustment’ to the high prices, but seems to shed few tears over the current levels. After all, if your imperative is climate change, a high gas price is worth 10 times a ratified Kyoto treaty in bringing about change.

“Republicans can drive a truck through the gap between this elite opinion and the need for ordinary people to afford the journey to work in the morning.”

The drilling ploy fits the emerging Republican strategy: Paint Obama as a flip-flopper and an elitist. A black John Kerry, as it were.

Simultaneously, the mainstream media – and the all-important Stewart-Colbert caucus – is honing an image of Obama as a humorless ascetic who won’t eat a doughnut or chug a beer. An elitist, as it were.

Yes, polls show Obama leading. He’s within five points in North Carolina. He’s playing in 24 states.

But don’t underestimate Americans’ love affair with their cars – and their anger over $4 gas.

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