There has been much discussion of gasoline prices lately and the American right wing is crowing loudly about how this justifies the maintenance of Bush Administration economic policies.
There is only one big problem with these assertions. There isn't much support coming from the media outside the Beltway. In fact, there is much coming out that refutes these assertions of 'conservative economic success'.
One of the biggest problems facing those who are claiming such validation is the widespread belief that currently lower gas prices are being manipulated. 42% of respondents to a new Gallup poll agree that the Bush administration “deliberately manipulated the price of gasoline so that it would decrease before this fall’s elections.”
It isn't just the common man in the street who is suspicious. CNN's veteran political commentator Jack Cafferty suggested as much on August 30.
There is reason to believe that the strategy is working - at least enough for Diebold to work its magical transmogrifying vote tricks.
Americans appear willing to trade away their votes, unable to make any changes for two more years - for $10 lousy dollars per tank. This doesn't speak well of the American people in that they can be bought off so easily by the reduction of just a few dollars in gas expenses.
Oil industry experts, however, maintain that gas prices should be dropping faster, yet in places like Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho there are experiencing higher than average gas prices despite this drop elsewhere in the nation [except for Naples, Florida!].
One Utah newspaper, the Daily Herald, insists that Gasoline price reforms needed: "How about a tax on retailers that would kick in when the retail price varies too much from wholesale?"
Such strong taxation language coming from an anti-tax, Redder-than-Red State!
Elected officials of these afflicted states are seeking to take some kind of legal action, but are finding themselves with few regulations to work with against an uncooperative and uncaring industry. Wyoming's Gov. Freudenthal said, "The state does not have the inherent jurisdiction to investigate multi-national oil companies."
Neither is there much to expect out of the national government, as The Kansas City Star rued in a recent editorial.
This leaves only the gasoline retailer for customers to complain to, but they protest they aren't the ones to blame for these prices:
"If you want to find out where the problem lies just follow the money," said Mark Walker of the Lindon [UT]-based Walker Oil. "You've got the retailers out here scratching and scrambling to make a nickel, while the big oil companies are making billions and posting 30 percent to 40 percent gains in their profits."
Considering the huge record profits recently reported by oil companies, they can certainly afford a few weeks of lower prices (and profits) in the quest to ensure that the GOP retains control of the government.
Article comments
1 - John Bambenek
Here we are, the usual crap every time any shred of good economic news comes out. It's all Bush's fault gas prices are going down...
Despite the fact that Labor Day weekend has always had the highest gas prices per year and they've declined sharply thereafter.
Always.
Every year.
Even under Clinton.
2 - JustOneMan
"It isn't just the common man in the street who is suspicious. CNN's veteran political commentator Jack Cafferty"
He also blames Bush for his fucking low ratings...
3 - dee
Doesn't it all make sense now? This is why we saw the high gas prices a while ago, they told the companies to gauge now knowing that they would lower the prices closer to election time. Wow these guys are sneaky. Bushco told them make your money during this time; remember the record profits the execs could not justify? They were just building a nice treasure in order to do what they are doing now with the low prices. They might be losing money now but they have a nice treasure chest to tide them over until after the election. Don't forget the poll that specifically tied lower gas prices to presidential approval ratings. Don't think for a second that they could not have talked about this, explain all the closed door secret meetings with oil company execs at the White House. This is all just part of the bigger plan though wich is stealing the next presidential election. They already have the machines to do it in place and 80% of the voters will be using them with no paper backup. We will soon be living under a conservative Christian theocracy and that will really, really suck.
4 - Dave Nalle
Good job streamlining this, Realist. Thanks for taking the trouble.
There's a lot here which I find questionable, but I do think you have a point on the gas price issue. Something very suspicious is going on there. I wouldn't suggest the administration is behind it, but it does make perfect sense for the oil companies to create conditions favorable to the reelection of candidates they've invested in.
Dave
5 - Baronius
Bush won in 2000. Bush won in 2004. (If I post this same comment on every board that denies it, I'll never have time for anything else.) (Oh well, I don't do much else anyway.)
6 - RJ Elliott
If Bush can control oil/gas prices, why did he let them get so high in the first place?
Oh, wait, it's a secret, devious, Rovian plan to turn Amerikkka into a theocratic oligarchy!
Or, maybe it's just supply and demand...you know, oil prices had been falling just prior to gas prices dropping...and OPEC is now openly considering a reduction of output...but I'm sure Bush is the one really in control for his assorted criminal purposes...BUSH IS HITLER!!!
7 - Clavos
Realist,
You have a point about investors in energy futures and stocks.
I noticed a few weeks ago that many money managers were being quoted as saying they were pulling out of oils. Thought it was anomalous at the time. Then the pump price started dropping.
You shine an interesting new (to me, at least) light on the phenomenon.
It does look like something is definitely afoot.
8 - JR
RJ Elliott: If Bush can control oil/gas prices, why did he let them get so high in the first place?
Don't be an idiot. What's the point in lowering your prices to get sympathetic politicians elected if you can't more than make up for it with higher prices the rest of the time? And if the Bushies were involved, they'd surely stand to share in those profits.
9 - Nancy
RJ, you & the other perpetual Bush apologists & butt-kissers are determined not to see the dirt on your idol's feet, the blood on his hands, or the evil on his head. You're all blind, deaf, and dumb - the perfect unquestioning followers of a blossoming Hitler wannabe. Sig heil.
10 - MCH
Nancy,
But he is smart enough that the blood on GW's hands will never be his...
11 - RJ Elliott
"Don't be an idiot. What's the point in lowering your prices to get sympathetic politicians elected if you can't more than make up for it with higher prices the rest of the time? And if the Bushies were involved, they'd surely stand to share in those profits."
Bush is already rich. So is Cheney. So is Rumsfeld. And they have all had their assets placed into blind trusts anyway.
So even if we pretend for a moment to dwell in Leftist Fantasyland, where a single man has the power to artificially control the price of a global commodity with a secret wave of his hand, we can STILL eliminate the motivation of greed.
So, assuming Bushitler was capable of such control over the price of gasoline, wouldn't it have been politically smarter to keep the price artificially LOW until after the 2006 elections? You know, rather than have a voting public that is pissed off at you for an entire year over historically-high gas prices?
Just how far removed from reality are you moonbats?
12 - JR
RJ Elliott: Bush is already rich. So is Cheney. So is Rumsfeld.
Oh, and rich people never want more money? Look who's removed from reality now.
And they have all had their assets placed into blind trusts anyway.
When they're out of office, they'll be back on the payrolls of the companies they helped out while in office. Just like the people who've left the administration already.
So even if we pretend for a moment to dwell in Leftist Fantasyland, where a single man has the power to artificially control the price of a global commodity with a secret wave of his hand, we can STILL eliminate the motivation of greed.
The Bush administration is not "a single man". Nor does it consist of only one man connected to the oil industry. Pretty fuckin' far from it, really.
And the administration doesn't even need to be actively manipulating the market; all that's needed is for the industry people to remember which side their bread is buttered on.
You think the administration isn't going to remind them?