Posted on 09/28/2006 6:55:59 AM PDT by Nevadan
The global pressures of supply and demand that sent energy prices skyward over the past year have brought the cost of gasoline closer to earth, at least for the time being.
Oil production along the Gulf Coast hasn't been interrupted by major hurricanes, so domestic supplies are up. The geopolitical climate of the Middle East has cooled. Crude oil futures, which traded at $78 per barrel in July, now go for close to $60. As a result, Americans are paying anywhere between 30 and 70 cents less for a gallon of gasoline than they did this summer. In some parts of the United States, gasoline sells for less than $2 a gallon.
However, for some Americans, good news is bad news.
American suffering is the core of the Democratic election strategy. Surely, President Bush ordered the price cut to trick the unwitting masses into returning Republicans to Washington. (Just like he ordered prices to rise a few months back to help his oil buddies.)
It's a ridiculous conspiracy theory that defies all reason. Nevertheless, a new Gallup poll asked Americans whether President Bush's administration "deliberately manipulated the price of gasoline so that it would decrease before this fall's election." And 42 percent of participants said they agreed with the statement.
Not surprisingly, two-thirds of the survey participants who bought this baloney are registered Democrats. But the contempt these people have for the president has created a gaping crack in their anti-Bush rhetoric. They would have Americans believe George W. Bush is the dumbest man alive, yet so fiendishly brilliant he can manipulate markets around the world, possessing "the kind of magisterial clout unknown to any other human being," Bush spokesman Tony Snow said Monday.
A Category 4 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico or genocidal threats from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could reverse this price plunge very quickly. But then, if either of those scenarios played out, the left would blame President Bush.
You'd expect a small sampling of any population to hold outlandish opinions as a result of some perceived injustice, a lack of opportunity, a limited education or plain old bad luck. But when more than 40 percent of the population buys such ridiculous conspiracy theories, it can't be pinned on life circumstances. Clearly, the opinion that President Bush rigs energy prices from the Oval Office is held by a wide spectrum of America. These people aren't merely ignorant of history and economic theory. They find comfort in believing that sinister, mysterious forces control the world around them. In this regard, they're no different from the millions of Arabs of all social classes who believe their repressive Islamic nations are being kept down by a Zionist-American plot.
"If we're dropping gas prices now," Mr. Snow said Monday, "why on earth did we raise them to $3.50 before?"
This Gallup poll reveals the toxic partisanship that has overwhelmed the electorate. It also lays bare the economic illiteracy of too many citizens living in the world's richest nation.
---not surprising , considering that probably 70% of the public can't tell you how the water gets to the faucet, the light to the bulb or where it goes when they flush--
If it is Bush's prodding that has caused gas prices to drop, you have to think that the Chinese and Europeans are glad we are having an election, because their prices are falling too.
"It also lays bare the economic illiteracy of too many citizens living in the world's richest nation."
BINGO!
Gore and Kerry didn't sweep the high school drop out vote for nothing!
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not surprising , considering that probably 70% of the public can't tell you how the water gets to the faucet,
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I have a liberal friend who lives across the street from a large water tower. He likes talking about it when they paint it and the painters are hanging off of it. It fascinates him. One day I asked him why do your think they make a water tower and store the water up in that big ball of a tank? "Hmmmmm.. I dunno, why?"
Everything is so polarized in politics today.
I don't believe in big conspiracies. Takes too many people without any weak links, almost impossible to orchestrate.
I also don't believe any politician is 100% virtuous. I don't believe every move by the Bush administration is done purely for the greater good.
The Bush administration can't control gas prices. Period.
The Bush administration can, and probably does influence gas prices. As other administrations have done in the past. Remember Clintion tapping the strategic reserve?
I thought you were going to say he likes watching the paint dry. Or hoping that paint chips fall off so he can eat them.
Gallup is usually pretty good, but this is just a dumb question to poll. Im not surprised by the results..
On the other hand, I bet if they polled the same people 6 months ago about the Presidents Job Approval and compared it to now, the results would be up for pres Bush now.
Why?
Gas prices are lower. So even if the people polled think the WH somehow manipulated a worldwide oil market, they still like the results.
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I thought you were going to say he likes watching the paint dry.
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He likes that too. Checks to see if it rains on the new paint job to see if the paint runs.
Economic illiteracy is the correct term. Democrats think that taxes are good for America in spite of the evidence that assumption is incorrect. They also believe that raising SS taxes is good (more money that businesses and people don't have to spend), that living wages are good (they increase unemployment) that more and more regulation is needed and the list goes on and on...
My approach is that I will not discuss much of anything with anyone who has not taken an economics class or workied in the business world. Then again, I was and Economics / Business major, and have worked in the manufacturing sector all my life.
I don't believe that administrations can control the price of gasoline, but the oil companies can and, I believe, do. They tell us every year that the price of gas goes up in the summer because the demand goes up and, somehow, summer after summer, they're taken by surprise and just don't have enough supply. It's the darndest thing. Seriously though, an oil company's primary responsibility isn't getting fuel to its customers at a fare price. Providing energy is just a means to an end. The primary responsibility of a publically held companies is to make money for its stockholders. If you want a true market economy you just have to learn to deal with it.
This probably explains why libs/dems are so sympathetic to the murderous, barbarian Islamo-nazis.
Macy's can control the price it sets for gold chains. But, it cannot set the world price of gold.
Debating with a Moonbat is like watching a cat chase its tail...funny as heck and there isn't anything you can do about it!
That's like the Paul Harvey story back in 1981 where a woman said she was sick about hearing about farmers. She answered the question about where food came from by saying, "Safeway."
During the 2000 election season, when gasoline prices were rising, Clinton released oil from the strategic reserve openly trying to force the retail price down for political gain.
During the 2004 election season, when gas prices were very high, and Bush's presidency hung in the balance, he refused to tap into the strategic reserve, even to save himself. The Dems had predicted he would do it, and were prepared to jump on him for it, but then when he didn't they attacked for not doing it.
He has only tapped into the reserve in the aftermath of Katrina briefly, and again briefly during the war in South Lebanon, if memory serves.
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