As gasoline prices climb President Obamas poll numbers plummet. In February a Washington Post/ABC poll had Obama up 6 points against Mitt Romney. Mondays poll has him down 2.
According to the polls gas prices are a huge part of the story particularly given how the last 30 days or so have not exactly been great for the GOP.
No wonder Obama is desperate to get out in front of the issue. The dilemma is that hes invested so much of his prestige in his energy policies that he cant admit those policies have been an abject failure. But he also cant have people thinking his policies are responsible for the energy price Americans care about most: gasoline.
Despite the gains weve made todays high gas prices are a painful reminder that theres much more work to do to free ourselves from our dependence on foreign oil and take control of our energy future the president declared Monday in a statement on the one-year anniversary of his Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future.
Lets take the second proposition first. Obama often says Under my administration America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. Thats true: Its also true that under Obamas administration Snooki from Jersey Shore got pregnant and Charlie Sheen lost his job. And he can take about as much credit for those developments too.
Never mind that if hed gotten the cap-and-trade proposals he campaigned on energy prices would be even worse. (He once acknowledged that under his plan electricity prices would skyrocket and coal companies would go bankrupt. His Energy secretary Steven Chu admitted he wanted America to emulate European gas prices when they were about $8 per gallon.)
The boom in oil production has taken place almost entirely on private and state lands while on federal lands its dropped (11 percent from 2010 to 2011 alone). The administration has also slowed the permitting of offshore oil and gas development to a trickle.
Another major factor is the development of new technologies that make it possible to extract ever more fuel from domestic sources. Instead of words of support Obama keeps telling those companies they need to be taxed more and have their subsidies yanked and hes touting the wonder-working power of algae (a possibly valuable fuel source by the middle of the century).
Ending subsidies to business entirely including oil companies is a good idea. But Obamas policy is completely different. He thinks hes smarter than the market and can pick winning industries and products.
Its an ugly record. Forget Solyndra -- and other solar and wind firms that have been going belly up like birds around a windmill -- thats old news. So is his decision to block the Keystone XL pipeline.
Last year the Energy Department awarded a $10 million L Prize for development of an affordable and eco-friendly light bulb. Philips just put its winning model on the market for $50 apiece. Meanwhile GM has temporarily suspended production of the Volt because of lack of demand for the affordable electric car.
On the unaffordable end of the market things are even worse. Consumer Reports tried to test drive the new $107850 Fisker Karma but it couldnt: We buy about 80 cars a year and this is the first time in memory that we have had a car that is undriveable before it has finished our check-in process.
Theres actually plenty Obama could do to help with gas prices but hes right not to do some of them. He shouldnt release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve nor should he appease Iran on its nuclear program. But he could for instance suspend the Jones Act which requires that all ships carrying goods between American ports be U.S. flagged. Doing so would dramatically lower the cost to distribute oil and gas (and outrage his union base).
Obama was recently asked by Fox News Ed Henry whether high gas prices are a deliberate result of White House policies. His response was telling. From a political perspective do you think the president of the United States going into re-election wants gas prices to go up higher? Is there anybody here who thinks that makes a lot of sense?
In other words Obama desperately wants people to think hes against higher gas prices -- at least until he gets re-elected.
Jonah Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Onlineand the author of the forthcoming book The Tyranny of Clichs. You can reach him via Twitter @JonahNRO.
As gasoline prices climb President Obamas poll numbers plummet. In February a Washington Post/ABC poll had Obama up 6 points against Mitt Romney. Mondays poll has him down 2.
According to the polls gas prices are a huge part of the story particularly given how the last 30 days or so have not exactly been great for the GOP.
No wonder Obama is desperate to get out in front of the issue. The dilemma is that hes invested so much of his prestige in his energy policies that he cant admit those policies have been an abject failure. But he also cant have people thinking his policies are responsible for the energy price Americans care about most: gasoline.
Despite the gains weve made todays high gas prices are a painful reminder that theres much more work to do to free ourselves from our dependence on foreign oil and take control of our energy future the president declared Monday in a statement on the one-year anniversary of his Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future.
Lets take the second proposition first. Obama often says Under my administration America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. Thats true: Its also true that under Obamas administration Snooki from Jersey Shore got pregnant and Charlie Sheen lost his job. And he can take about as much credit for those developments too.
Never mind that if hed gotten the cap-and-trade proposals he campaigned on energy prices would be even worse. (He once acknowledged that under his plan electricity prices would skyrocket and coal companies would go bankrupt. His Energy secretary Steven Chu admitted he wanted America to emulate European gas prices when they were about $8 per gallon.)
The boom in oil production has taken place almost entirely on private and state lands while on federal lands its dropped (11 percent from 2010 to 2011 alone). The administration has also slowed the permitting of offshore oil and gas development to a trickle.
Another major factor is the development of new technologies that make it possible to extract ever more fuel from domestic sources. Instead of words of support Obama keeps telling those companies they need to be taxed more and have their subsidies yanked and hes touting the wonder-working power of algae (a possibly valuable fuel source by the middle of the century).
Ending subsidies to business entirely including oil companies is a good idea. But Obamas policy is completely different. He thinks hes smarter than the market and can pick winning industries and products.
Its an ugly record. Forget Solyndra -- and other solar and wind firms that have been going belly up like birds around a windmill -- thats old news. So is his decision to block the Keystone XL pipeline.
Last year the Energy Department awarded a $10 million L Prize for development of an affordable and eco-friendly light bulb. Philips just put its winning model on the market for $50 apiece. Meanwhile GM has temporarily suspended production of the Volt because of lack of demand for the affordable electric car.
On the unaffordable end of the market things are even worse. Consumer Reports tried to test drive the new $107850 Fisker Karma but it couldnt: We buy about 80 cars a year and this is the first time in memory that we have had a car that is undriveable before it has finished our check-in process.
Theres actually plenty Obama could do to help with gas prices but hes right not to do some of them. He shouldnt release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve nor should he appease Iran on its nuclear program. But he could for instance suspend the Jones Act which requires that all ships carrying goods between American ports be U.S. flagged. Doing so would dramatically lower the cost to distribute oil and gas (and outrage his union base).
Obama was recently asked by Fox News Ed Henry whether high gas prices are a deliberate result of White House policies. His response was telling. From a political perspective do you think the president of the United States going into re-election wants gas prices to go up higher? Is there anybody here who thinks that makes a lot of sense?
In other words Obama desperately wants people to think hes against higher gas prices -- at least until he gets re-elected.
Jonah Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Onlineand the author of the forthcoming book The Tyranny of Clichs. You can reach him via Twitter @JonahNRO.
