I think it's fair to say that the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10, 15 years, in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom. Now, you've heard it all before. You look at the economic policies when they're being debated among the presidential candidates, it's all tax cuts.  Well, we know, we've done that; we've tried it. That's not really going to solve our energy problems, for example.

So it turns out Obama's view of "solv[ing] our energy problems" is not to lower taxes (a Republican idea) but to drill baby drill (another Republican idea).  Oh, well, he said as much anyway.

"Its like a kick in the face" says Jonathan Ruiz of Florida International University.  Jonathan campaigned for Obama for fourteen months, and now he's livid about today's announcement by the administration to open half the east coast to offshore drilling.
...
Why are these Florida university students mad?  They are being sold out by the Obama administration in a misguided attempt to curry political favor. ...

Youth, the millennial generation so inspired by Obama to vote in record numbers, have the most to lose from the expansion of drilling.  Even some

President Barack Obama's plan to allow expanded offshore oil and gas exploration won rebuke from the top House Republican on Wednesday.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) dismissed the president's plan as not going far enough in opening up U.S. waters for exploration.

But while Mr. Obama has staked out middle ground on other environmental matters -- supporting nuclear power, for example -- the sheer breadth of the offshore drilling decision will take some of his supporters aback. And it is no sure thing that it will win support for a climate bill from undecided senators close to the oil industry, like Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, or Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana.

The Senate is expected to take up a climate bill in the next few weeks -- the last chance to enact such legislation before midterm election concerns take over. Mr. Obama and his allies in the Senate have already made significant concessions on coal and nuclear power to try to win votes from Republicans and moderate Democrats. The new plan now grants one of the biggest items on the oil industry's wish list -- access to vast areas of the Outer Continental Shelf for drilling. [emphasis mine]

So...do they want to seem like they are constantly serving industry interests?  

And in terms of currying favor with Conservadems, I don't see how that works here either (from RLMiller):

Note that the drilling boundary is set between Delaware and New Jersey.  Last week, ten Senators warned against a big expansion of offshore oil drilling.  Along with both Oregon Senators and six New-Jersey-and-northward Senators, the letter was signed by Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Ted Kaufman (D-DE).  Perhaps there's a blunt political calculus that Nelson and Kaufman will come around, or that the loss of their unimportant votes on a climate bill will be offset by gaining the prized votes of Murkowski, Landrieu, and other oil-slicked Senators.  If so, that's a bizarre calculation (proverbs about birds in the hand come to mind).

YOU DON'T PRE-COMPROMISE.

The proposal -- a compromise that will please oil companies and domestic drilling advocates but anger some residents of affected states and many environmental organizations -- would end a longstanding moratorium on oil exploration along the East Coast from the northern tip of Delaware to the central coast of Florida, covering 167 million acres of ocean

"[i]n many of the newly opened areas, drilling would begin only after the completion of geologic studies, environmental impact statements, court challenges and public lease sales. Much of the oil and gas may not be recoverable at current prices and may be prohibitively expensive even if oil prices spike as they did in the summer of 2008."

Obama Proposes Opening Vast Offshore Areas to Drilling

NYT Headline

Obama's announcement "is a step in the right direction," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., "but a small one that leaves enormous amounts of American energy off limits."

USA Today