"The President's announcement sounded less like a national energy plan than like a page from an election-year play book. This Administration's plan to reduce obscene oil company profits is to regulate them less"

This quote is a criticism of the President's energy plan. It indicates that the plan is more concentrated on gaining votes in an election year than on in fact minimizing oil business profits. The quote suggests that the strategy is to minimize oil company profits by minimizing policy, which could be seen as a way of appeasing the oil business and their fans. This could be viewed as a method of gaining votes, rather than actually decreasing oil business earnings. The quote indicates that the President's plan is not a serious attempt to decrease oil company revenues, however rather a political tactic to get votes in an election year.