Message Points, Politics
As Bush Polls Go, So Go Gas Prices
They posited an interesting theory today on the Tom Joyner Morning Show. I don’t know if it’s original or not, but radio host Tom Joyner suggested it:
Every time Bush’s poll numbers tank — and both Newsweek and FoxNews have him at 36% approval right now — gas prices go down.
I don’t know about you, but we’re paying about $2.83 a gallon in these parts, about $.15 less than we were paying at the beginning of the month, when closer to 40% of Americans approved of Bush.
Kind of makes you go, “Hmmmm.”
Topics: Message Points, Politics
Man, we Californians would LOVE to see prices like that. Here they run from $2.99 to $3.45 (or more) depending on where you are in the state.
Our prices here have been climbing steadily ever since Chevron closed a functioning, profitable refinery, about ten years ago, so they would be “forced” to import more gas.
Here’s where to look. Old Professor Pollkatz has been tracking that inverse correlation for at least 3 years. Here’s the link, give him a look. He’s pretty good. The scary part is it seems for us as a nation issues don’t matter, gas rules.
http://www.pollkatz.homestead.com/
Earlier this year, and about three weeks before gas prices started rising, I read on the DOE’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve website that 1) Bush had ordered the maxing out of the SPR, 2) Congress (on orders of the Bush administration?) had authorized an increase in the SPR’s storage capacity from 750 million barrels to 1 billion barrels and 3) that oil service companies had begun opening up more salt domes along the Gulf Coast for additional storage.
And then three weeks later, gasoline prices started climbing. That was about 5 to 6 months ago.
To put it simply, Bush needed 250 million barrels of crude oil to max out the SPR. The question then becomes: how long were Bush/Cheney planning on taking based on how much were they planning on “depositing” daily into the SPR?
A couple of months ago, Bush held a press conference addressing energy issues. Remember? During it, Bush stated that he was temporarily suspended his SPR “depositing” program…and besides, he said, the amount he was depositing daily wasn’t much.
Coupled with what I’d read several months earlier on the DOE’s SPR webpage, and based on Bush being a habitual liar, I knew he was lying.
Let’s presume that Bush/Cheney planned on maxing out the expanded capacity SPR sometime this year. And let’s say that Bush/Cheney, as additional SPR salt domes opened, were “depositing” about 1 million barrels a day.
Since 250 million barrels are needed to fill up the SPR to it’s 1 billion barrel capacity, and if Bush/Cheney were “depositing” 1 million barrels a day, their “depositing” program would take approximately 8 to 9 months to finish…just in time for the November elections.
But you haven’t heard about this, have you? Bush/Cheney classified their “depositing” program, and except for Bush’s brief mention of the program at his press conference, nothing else is being reported on it. And the DOE’s SPR website no longer carries that page that I read months earlier which talked about the 3 facts I mentioned above. Why?
Because it is my contention that Bush’s 1 million barrel a day SPR “depositing” program triggered the gasoline price rise earlier this year. A gas price hike that has adversely affected millions of U.S. citizens, as well as other people around the world.
Of course, the world’s oil companies are making a killing, as well as the oil future’s speculators, almost as if Bush/Cheney did this as political payback to their oil crony political supporters.
And now, Bush/Cheney, the Republicans, the oil companies, and the MSM, are doing their best to keep people from finding out before the November elections about another Bush-generated disaster.
A couple of months ago on one of the Sunday morning political talk shows a RNC strategist, when asked, “How will Republicans do in the fall elections?” replied, “I think we will do just fine. Republicans will do alright when oil gets back to fifty dollars a barrel before the fall elections.”
How did he know that oil would drop when the future’s markets were still betting on higher prices? We can expect prices to drop until November 7th, then hang on to your wallets.
Gas prices in Columbus Ohio have dropped down to $2.45/gal as of this morning. But they are still up to almost $2.95 in Orlando, FL.
Could there be any relationship to the fact that Republicans are in trouble in Ohio but relatively safe in FL?
Are states where Republicans are sinking in the polls getting lower prices for gas?
Here in Dayton, Ohio I paid $2.39 the other day. I believe motorists have been conserving gas when it has been $3/gal and Big Oil doesn’t want that.
The Rethugs and the big oil companies are scared that the Dems will gain control of Congress and will do anything to stay in power. They will give the stuff away if they have to!