On Friday, we reported that gas prices had tumbled from an early-April peak of $3.93 per gallon to a $3.80 per gallon national average. Since then, the national average has fallen another few cents, but the media who happily bantered about the political consequences of rising gas prices on President Obama‘s reelection prospects have, thus far, remained silent about this drop, which coincides exactly with the President’s remarks about reining in oil speculators.
The national media, especially Fox News, were quick to report that the sky was falling when Republicans tried to make rising gasoline prices a political liability for President Obama. The conversation dominated political news for weeks, as the national average gasoline price peaked at about $3.93 per gallon. Since President Obama“waved the tar baby” of oil speculation on April 17, though, gas prices have fallen from a national average of about $3.92 on April 16, to less than $3.78 per gallon today, and are expected to plunge below $3.50 by July. (It’s worth noting that even the Obama-era peak of $3.96 per gallon is still lower than the $4.12 per gallon national average under George W. Bush in the summer of 2008.)
Of course, correlation doesn’t equal causation, and some are even trying to spin lower gas prices as a negative for President Obama (hello, Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal), but if rising gas prices are the President’s fault (at least when his name is Barack Obama), then falling prices at the pump ought to be a positive. While most people agree that there isn’t much a president can do to affect gas prices, the current drop isn’t being chalked up to supply and demand, but to the psychology of the oil futures market.
So for those of you keeping score remember:
Gas prices go up, President's fault.
Gas prices go down, President had NOTHING to do with it.
So obviously this drop cannot be credited to the fact that oil production in America, as a direct result of this President's policies, is the highest it has been in eight years either. Right?
In other news the President was seen walking on water. Credit given to water for working so hard to make him look good.
