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| Costly gas clouds Obama reelection prospects |
| 2011-04-25 |
[Iran Press TV] With gas prices climbing and little relief in sight, U.S. President Barack B.O.Obama is scrambling to get ahead of the latest potential obstacle to his re-election bid, even as Republicans are making plans to exploit the issue. No one seems more aware of the electoral peril than Obama himself. "My poll numbers go up and down depending on the latest crisis, and right now gas prices are weighing heavily on people," he told Democratic donors in Los Angeles this past week. In fact, Obama raised the issue unsolicited in a series of town meetings in Virginia, Caliphornia and Nevada that were ostensibly about his deficit-reduction plan. And he made the gas spike the subject of his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday. As Obama well knows, Americans love their cars and remain heavily dependent on them, and they don't hesitate to punish politicians when the cost of filling their tanks goes through the roof. Indeed, for presidents, responding to sudden surges is a recurring frustration. "These gas prices are killing you right now," Obama said at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, acknowledging that many Americans can't afford new fuel-efficient cars and must drive older models. For some, he said, the cost of a fill-up has all but erased the benefit of the payroll tax holiday that he and congressional Republicans agreed on last December. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #22 So we've got to pay the highest gasoline to get rid of Obummer at the polls in 2012? What a screwed up deal that is. Lose-win situation. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2011-04-25 19:46 |
| #21 ION WND > 25 SIGNS THAT THE US IS IN ECONOMIC DECLINE [under POTUS Bammer watch?]. and * SAME > [Market Watch] IMF BOMBSHELL: AGE OF AMERICA NEARS END, CHINA'S ECONOMIY WILL SURPASS THE US [in Real Terms] IN 2016. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-04-25 19:40 |
| #20 The true cost of a barrel of oil also must include a big chunk of our defense budget. To the 'Commander in Chief' - who BTW is sworn to defend us from all enemies foreign and domestic - that is a feature not a bug. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2011-04-25 16:30 |
| #19 The true cost of a barrel of oil also must include a big chunk of our defense budget. That's not in the cost of a barrel for oil, that's just the cost of this country's decision to NOT DRILL HERE. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2011-04-25 16:25 |
| #18 The true cost of a barrel of oil also must include a big chunk of our defense budget. If the US were not so dependent on jihadi oil, our response to the Jihad would be very different than it has so far been, the entire WOT would most likely have been cheaper and over with by now. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-04-25 15:21 |
| #17 ...and prohibit margin buying. If you got the money you can play, if you don't you can't. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2011-04-25 12:37 |
| #16 Going after oil speculators seemss to me to be crap since real oil is purchased on the spot market. Are the spot markets that heavily swayed by the speculative market? I wouldn't think OPEC or our own oil production would be part of that, but I don't know. But if you absolutely, positively have to remove speculators from the market, just enforce a rule that says that if you speculatively trade oil, you have to have a place to store that oil. |
| Posted by: gorb 2011-04-25 12:09 |
| #15 Every other potential speculator has a storage problem. Due to the Bernank, everyone who has savings or retirement plans denominated in dollars, has debts denominated in dollars, or who does business in dollars, has therefore become a speculator. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-04-25 11:11 |
| #14 An d NOW the EPA has cut oil drilling off Alaska .......WTFO !!!!! |
| Posted by: armyguy 2011-04-25 09:47 |
| #13 The Kenyans are so put out with Obama's actions in Libya they are now openly accusing him of being born in the United States. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2011-04-25 07:53 |
| #12 phil_b: really? Nothing at all? Not even a teeny tiny bit? Globally, oil is traded in USD. It follows that the lower the value of the dollar, the more of them it takes to buy a barrel of oil. Might look like this:  The economy is in the shitter. Yet: oil is up. gold is up. Commodities are up. The Dow is up. Either the Empire State Building rising to meet the sky, or we are in the elevator on the way down. Which is more plausible? |
| Posted by: RandomJD 2011-04-25 07:13 |
| #11 When you print dollars, for whatever reason, it will tend to raise the price of oil. When you print a lot of dollars the price of oil goes up a lot. If you printed the dollars to bail out irresponsible bankers, there's a relationship to the price of oil. The only possible oil speculators are the Sauds. They're the only ones with a place to store all the oil they don't take to market. Every other potential speculator has a storage problem. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2011-04-25 07:12 |
| #10 Have you heard of the Ben Bernanke? He might have a "little" to do with the falling purchasing power of the dollar. The purchasing power of the USD is a separate issue to the price of oil. I think printing money to bail out the irresponsible lenders is economic lunacy, and a tax on the responsible (to bailout the irresponsible). But this has nothing to do with the price of oil. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2011-04-25 06:08 |
| #9 Worth repeating: The 14 percent target was set in the Environmental Protection Agency's budget for fiscal 2010. Even though Cap and Trade failed in the Senate, Obama is going to implement it by bureaucratic regulations. Expect electricity rates to double or triple, depending on your local fuel source. |
| Posted by: Zebulon Thranter9685 2011-04-25 05:53 |
| #8 Fuel Taxes Must Rise, Harvard Researchers Say To meet the Obama administrationÂ’s targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, some researchers say, Americans may have to experience a sobering reality: gas at $7 a gallon. To reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the transportation sector 14 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, the cost of driving would simply have to increase, according to a report released Thursday by researchers at HarvardÂ’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. The research also appears in the March edition of the journal Energy Policy. The 14 percent target was set in the Environmental Protection AgencyÂ’s budget for fiscal 2010. |
| Posted by: Zebulon Thranter9685 2011-04-25 05:43 |
| #7 In 2008 it was speculators who, when choked off of funds by the banking collapse saw their game ended, ran up the price. Today, its because the Inner Party has created billions of 'new' dollars to intentionally inflate the monetary unit to cover the junk paper those banks and other institutions are holding on way overpriced property. Rather than see their part pay the price for gambling losses, they're sticking it to everyone else. That's reflected in too many dollars [in many people's hands ie China et al] chancing a basic commodity of modern civilization. No sympathy for 'no drill' Obama who can't comprehend that if you flood the market with available oil, you keep the price down even in the face of inflationary pressures. All the promises of 'fairy tale' alternate energies doesn't run the car or power generators today. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2011-04-25 05:26 |
| #6 > The only people manipulating oil prices Have you heard of the Ben Bernanke? He might have a "little" to do with the falling purchasing power of the dollar. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2011-04-25 05:15 |
| #5 #4 Scapegoating. The only people manipulating oil prices are OPEC and I don't expect any of them to be arrested any time soon. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2011-04-25 03:35 |
| #4 Blame the "Speculators". |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-04-25 03:08 |
| #3 As per GUAMPDN FORUMS = a Gas Station in FLORIDA is already selling Regular gas for UNDER SIX DOLLARS A GALLON, believed to be the highest in CONUS at this time. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-04-25 03:03 |
| #2 I thought the gas referred to was CO2. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2011-04-25 01:20 |
| #1 Every time Zero "laments" the rising price of gas, someone should replay the campaign clips where he promised that exactly. |
| Posted by: PBMcL 2011-04-25 00:22 |