The administration whose Energy Secretary wants Euro-level gas prices tries feeling your pain:
At a fundraiser in Southern California last week, where pump prices are the highest in the country, Obama acknowledged the political peril of high gas prices. He said, “My poll numbers go up and down depending on the latest crisis, and right now gas prices are weighing heavily on people.”
He tried to show that he feels motorists’ pain. “I admit, Secret Service doesn’t let me fill up the pump anymore,” he said. “But it hasn’t been that long since I did.”
True. He had to pump his own gas when he commuted from the manicured lawns of Hyde Park with its private police force to whichever decrepit part of town two miles away he was “community-organizing” in. The Post’s reporters, Steven Mufson and Jon Cohen, neatly illustrate the “stubborn nature” of J-school reporting on this issue and “the difficulty of weaning” the media “off its dependence” on lazy tropes:
The poll also shows the stubborn nature of gasoline consumption and the difficulty of weaning the country off its dependence on imported oil.
“The country” is “dependent” on oil. But the “imported” bit is purely a matter of choice: A decadent elite has decided largely for aesthetic reasons that oil extraction is something foreigners do in distant lands. Hence, the pathetic spectacle of President Obama going to Brazil to praise the Brazilians for serious deepwater extraction that would get him booed off stage by the Sierra Club types if he advocated it here. If it destroys the planet doing it in U.S. waters, doesn’t it also destroy the planet transferring the operation to Brazilian waters? Meanwhile:
Although gasoline prices are just a quarter of a dollar short of their all-time record of $4.11 for a gallon of regular set in July 2008, the Energy Information Administration forecast this month that gas consumption would average about 9.3 million barrels a day over the peak summer driving season, a 0.5 percent increase over last summer.
“Population growth and a recovering economy contribute to gasoline consumption growth,” the EIA said, adding that high gas prices and better fuel efficiency standards would dampen demand.
Or maybe economic collapse and Balkan-style civil war will “dampen demand” first.
No participant in this report from the establishment newspaper of the superpower’s capital city — the president, his “EIA,” and certainly not the reporters – seems to have a clue that in vast swathes of the country millions of people commute long distances for relatively low-paying jobs whose economic viability is severely impacted by the difference between gas at a dollar-eighty (the dawn of the Hopeychangey era) and five bucks per gallon (this summer). Maybe they could all move to Washington and get jobs as “EIA” analysts.
But don’t worry, we have a president who claims to know how “to fill up the pump.” With wet cement?
Let them have high speed rail. Sniff.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Fill up the pump." Whenever he wants to show off his feel for the common man, a higher power seems to intervene to make sure that he does.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseActually it's Obama who is not letting domestic oil producers fill up the pump.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse>"A decadent elite has decided largely for aesthetic reasons that oil extraction is something foreigners do in distant lands....If it destroys the planet doing it in U.S. waters, doesn’t it also destroy the planet transferring the operation to Brazilian waters?"
This has been one of the pieces of evidence I frequently cite to back my thesis that liberalism is inherently racist (among other -ists). In the name of our "pristine wilderness" we outsource our energy production to places where brown people can despoil their environments for maximum profit. It's the same reason why liberals excuse radical Islamic savagery: "What else can we expect from those people? They've never had anything but backward tribal culture." And Western Civilization just spontaneously occurred?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe economy is addicted to oil in the same sense that our bodies are addicted to blood.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"difference between gas at a dollar-eighty (the dawn of the Hopeychangey era) and five bucks per gallon (this summer). "
This is an awful use of misleading data. Gasoline prices in the summer of '08 hovered around the $4/gallon mark. The fall collapse to the $1.80/gallon level was a direct result of the economic crisis we were in. If the economy had not tanked gas prices would not have. The world economy is recovering so it is only natural that gas prices are going back to what were their pre-downturn prices. For anyone who wants to look at gasolines historic price levels this is a good link:
External Link
I am all for hitting Obama for not allowing drilling in the US. We are allowing an enormous storehouse of wealth go untapped. However, using $1.80 gas prices as an argument against his policies is just plain silly.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'll just say that I saw the subject to this post and automatically my brain went to the wrestling shows my brothers and cousin and I watched as kids: "Pumpin' ain't easy."
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"However, using $1.80 gas prices as an argument against his policies is just plain silly."
Ain't silly at all in political terms. Bush got hammered for high gas prices and Obama is, ah, feeling the same political pain. Only Bush didn't have to deal with unemployment around nine percent at the same time. Obama seems to be stumbling into a swell Carter-style stagflation. He might ask Jimmy how that worked out in 1980.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCasey,
Here is why it is silly: Obama can easily show that gas prices during his administration are on par with gas prices during much of the Bush administration. It dilutes the impact of higher prices by normalizing it. It allows Obama to give context to the price levels. People are already p*ssed off at gas prices, allowing an easily countered argument will just cloud the issue.
I am all for comparing Obama's economy with Carter's, I think that would be a great strategy. But why allow Obama to compare his economy with the end of Bush's? The economy is doing marginally better, although if Obama had just left things alone they would be doing MUCH better, so some people will see it as a win for Obama.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Obama can easily show that gas prices during his administration are on par with gas prices during much of the Bush administration."
I don't think even Obama is boneheaded enough to try this. Yeah, gas prices are at the same level that got my predecessor a 30% approval rating!
Come on. Does Obama really want to run on "my economy is as bad as Bush's"? Well, that slogan does sound as clever as "leading from behind."
If Obama presides over a double-digit misery index next year, punctuated by much higher prices for food and fuel, he's in deepest doodoo, to quote Daddy Bush. He could well complete the massive defeat he suffered last year.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOne reasonably asks, what happened in 2008? Why did stable gas prices (below $2/gallon) skyrocket that year, peak the month before the election and plummet to new lows for the new century--no, for the new millenium--on BHO's inauguration day? Whose hand was behind this? Where's the indignation, the investigation?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRobert,
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat data are you looking at? Average gas prices were $3.08 on January 7, 2008 and did not drop below $2 until after Obama was elected. Moreover, prices dropped from a high of $4.05 on July 14 to $2.34 on Nov 4. If low gas prices help the incumbent party then it should have helped McCain.
"Seems to have a clue that in vast swathes of the country millions of people commute long distances for relatively low-paying jobs whose economic viability is severely impacted by the difference between gas at a dollar-eighty (the dawn of the Hopeychangey era) and five bucks per gallon (this summer)."
Those "vast swathes of the country" are getting their just deserts for basing their entire economic model on the (ludicrous and patently absurd) assumption of eternally low oil and gas prices. Supposedly effeminate and idiotic liberals have been predicting for decades that oil prices would rise significantly and, instead of actually attempting to address the issue, Mark Steyn and his ilk expelled the intellectual equivalent of flatulence and said how awesome highways were.
As a proud city dweller (i.e. people that have been endlessly mocked by Mr. Steyn and his NRO colleagues) you'll have to forgive me for pointing and laughing at those idiotic residents of the exurbs who thought that driving 60 miles to and from work every day was an efficient use of resources. Good job on that one, guys!
Anyway, oil prices are rising because of massive structural changes in the world economy (i.e. the rapid development of China and India) that cannot be undone. Have fun shelling out all that gas money to the Saudis, suburbanites!
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@Tom,
Demand for energy globally is certainly not like it was circa 2005-2007. The high 2008 prices were just at the tail end of a speculative boom that had already lost wind. The crisis in the financial markets did bring about a liquidity crisis, as trillions of dollars went up in smoke in just 4-6 months. In late 2008 it wasn't just oil prices that crashed. So did about all commodities.
And now 2 years into our "recovery", demand for energy while up, certainly does not support $113/barrel oil. At its nadir, oil in late Nov-Dec 2008 sold for $38/barrel. It has almost tripled in price since then. As have all other commodities. Yet, Demand is still below the gravy train years of 2003-2007. So, it isn't demand that's causing the dramatic spikes.
The President and his Fed Chief are responsible for the falling dollar and soaring energy/food prices. Both men have been successful in creating a new bubble. But outside of institutional investors, no one is benefiting. Last month was an all time low for wage earners. Only 52% of all income in this nation is derived from wages (the rest comes from income redistribution). And all of this redistribution is being is being borrowed at a rate of $4-6 billion a day.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@ Gregory of Yardale
Great line. Our economy requires not only petroleum and other fossil fuels, but it requires them at low prices to flourish. When energy prices go up dramatically, like gasoline and oil have recently, it will dramatically and negatively affect the economy. I am certain the recent rise in oil and gasoline prices will bring on a deepening of the current severe recession.
The last time gas and oil prices soared, I believed it would bring on recession. Economists, largely, if not utterly, ignored it. Later, they all said the recession was driven primarily by financial stuff. Our economy, including the financial markets, are completely at the mercy of oil, diesel and gasoline prices. It is our economic life blood. What is is. Nothing will change that fact. There is no viable alternative to transportation energy. If we pay more for it, it is less money spent on other things. That will fill the coffers of oil and gasoline companies and oil exporting nations, but it will harm producers of other products and providers of services. It is especially so, because the increase in the amount an average American spends on gasoline is so great, that it will significantly decrease his spending on other things. Yes, he may drive a little less, ride his motorcycle whenever possible, perhaps, when and where available, use mass transit a little more frequently, but these will not save much in America's spending on gasoline. Most people would take mass transit, if it were reasonably available. It isn't in most places. Most Americans would drive a lot less, if they could. Most driving is to and from work. They must get to work. High gasoline prices won't change that, so that's where his money will go - to gasoline to get to and from work. The pinheaded leadership either doesn't get this, or they intend to bring the economy down. It's as simple as that.
I don't know if it's bad policy, or something else. I only know the nation will not sustain $4 a gallon gasoline/diesel and remain competitive. The economy will tank again, only worse, since we're already down. If our government really can't do anything about the price of gasoline/diesel, then we're in serious trouble. If we're really at the mercy of Islamic producers, or the Third World's growing demand for oil, or just greedy companies, then the American economy will crash and everyone will be hurt by it. It's like a mad world hell bent on self destruction. If the government can do something about it, but won't, that's even more distressing. It means we have no democracy at all. It means our government is utterly unresponsive to the needs and unsympathetic to the suffering of Americans.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs far as I'm concerned, it's more than fair to hold Obama responsible for outrageous increases in gas prices during his time in office. His "boot on the neck" of the petroleum industry is responsible.
People will say (though no one will actually believe) that prices are on par with what they were during the Bush administration (interesting how everything is Bush's fault, even as his presidency is quickly becoming a golden age in our memories), or that, even if our government completely reversed its energy policies today, it would take a decade or more to see a difference in gasoline price, or that the gas price is all the fault of speculators (as if government policies which create artificial scarcities of otherwise plentiful commodities are somehow disconnected from the actions of speculators).
These excuses are designed for the ears of mental and emotional children. Sadly, the abundance of such people and a lazy, ideological media make such a strategy an effective one, and Obama will escape the full measure of blame. Still, economic pain is speaking for Obama's future opponent quite eloquently right now, and it is eminently fair.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Those "vast swathes of the country" are getting their just deserts for basing their entire economic model on the (ludicrous and patently absurd) assumption of eternally low oil and gas prices."
I commute 82 miles/day in order to feed my family. In the mean, time over credentialed effette urban professionals continue to demand that we borrow some $250 million an hour in order realize the completion of their abstract ideas. If you really want to celebrate the success of our Progressive Urban elites, please move to Detroit. I hear the homes are cheap. Heck, you can buy an entire nieghborhood for $1.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI recall a long, long time ago when Bush 41 tried to make a purchase at a book store and the MSM maligned him for not knowing how to complete the purchase using a credit card. Yet Obama claims he recently pumped his own gas and no one raises an eye brow. Reminds me of how they bashed Quayle for his spelling of "potato" but they gave Obama a pass for mispronouncing "Corpsman". Anyway...
Obama did appoint a Task Force to study the higher gas prices. I think we all can see through it though. The Task Force gives him cover and the ability to say he's doing something. Months from now if prices drop the Task Force will quietly fade into history - it's report shoved away to gather dust somewhere out of sight and mind. If prices don't drop then the Task Force will illustrate a key failure of his administration. We're at a point in our history where we need LEADERSHIP - not task forces and commissions and studies. Obama is unusually good at pawning responsibility off on to such entities, in effect treating national issues as a gigantic essay or thesis. But he has absolutely no skill in grappling with a problem head on and producing an effective solution.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@JPK,
get a better job and stop blaming other people for your failures, you looter.
meanwhile i, along with all of my "effete urban professional" friends, will continue to laugh at you as you shell out ever-larger quantities of money for gasoline. have fun!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI took the president's advice and inflated my tires to the proper pounds per square inch and ensured my filters were clean. WHOA what a difference at the pump! Now I expect to drive practically for FREEEEE. I'm so thankful that this nation has such a wise, magnanimous and mechanically astute president.
No worries here, baby!
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