Gasoline prices pose problems for Obama

[Agent 1337]

Pain at the pump has turned into pain at the polls for President Obama -- and it's putting the nation's top Democrat in a political bind between an anxious electorate and environmental allies.

Gallup's daily tracking poll showed Obama hitting an all-time low last week at 41 percent, a 10-point drop from mid-March. The downward slide was mirrored in an array of other surveys. And there's plenty of reason to believe that the drop has little to do with the issue that has consumed Washington lately -- the budget standoff -- and everything to do with gas prices that, according to the AAA, have soared more than a dollar a gallon in the past year.

A recent poll from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press listed gas prices as the financial concern that affects people the most, with 69 percent of Americans saying it affects them a lot. Only 7 percent said the rising cost of fuel doesn't affect them at all. Another Pew survey showed that more people are concerned with rising oil prices than with the federal deficit.

Even environmentalists, who want Obama to stick to his clean energy agenda, admit he's in a bind: Rising gas prices make it harder for him to sell his plan to move the nation away from fossil fuels while Republicans are demanding that he expand domestic oil production now.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_exclusive/gasoline-prices-pose-problems-for-obama

 

[Formaldehyde]

You have to love American politics where the president is judged on factors which are largely completely out of his control. This is especially true now that he is largely hamstrung by not even being able to spend government money anymore on various incentives to address the problems.

 

[Whiskey_Lord]

Indeed. This is just embarrassing.

 

[nivi]

Rising gas prices make it harder for him to sell his plan to move the nation away from fossil fuels ...

I love the dissonance in that line.

 

[El_Machinae]

It's really amazing to me how unprepared we are for higher fuel prices. People seem to stretch their budgets fiercely, and then are shocked when some prices go up, as expected.

I asked a couple years ago how people's personal 'free market' was going to help solve energy concerns. Everyone just seemed to focus on using less. Where's the innovation? Where's the investment in alternatives? There's nothing at the personal level. People think about buying cheaper cars, but that's about it.

 

[RedRalph]

He'll still get re-elected.

 

[LucyDuke]

You have to love American politics where the president is judged on factors which are largely completely out of his control.

It's really amazing to me how unprepared we are for higher fuel prices.

LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU LA LA LA EVERYTHING'S FINE

 

[GoodSarmatian]

You have to love American politics where the president is judged on factors which are largely completely out of his control.

Nationalize the oil industry.
There's your control.

 

[LucyDuke]

That'll totally fly.

 

[Cutlass]

One of the dumbest issues in the whole thing is that people assume we could drill our way out of the problem if only the government would get out of the way. The reality is that at current use trends, the US will never be free of imports, no matter what drilling takes place. There just isn't that much oil left in the US.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

One of the dumbest issues in the whole thing is that people assume we could drill our way out of the problem if only the government would get out of the way. The reality is that at current use trends, the US will never be free of imports, no matter what drilling takes place. There just isn't that much oil left in the US.

Even if you drill enough domestic oil, it will be sold by the companies on the international market. It doesn't change anything about the dependece issue, it just provides another source of income to oil companies.
Unless you nationalize it.

 

[Disgustipated]

There is one thing Obama could do about gas prices.

Nuke all the countries with heavy dependence on oil. This would surely drive down oil and gas prices.

But seriously they just could build more refineries. My understanding is there is plenty of oil, but the bottleneck is at the refineries.

Rising gas prices make it harder for him to sell his plan to move the nation away from fossil fuels

I don't understand this, wouldn't it make it easier to move away from fossil fuels? That's what the environmentalists have been saying for years.

Is there anyone besides me who prefers oil and gas prices to be higher? Yes it is severely hurting our economy and causing more capital to be drained away from the U.S. into countries like Saudi Arabia, but I'm hoping it will cause people to consume less and buy more fuel efficient cars.

 

[Zelig]

It's really amazing to me how unprepared we are for higher fuel prices. People seem to stretch their budgets fiercely, and then are shocked when some prices go up, as expected.

Most people live paycheque-to-paycheque, regardless of their ability to do otherwise, and the information they have available... I dunno what can realistically be done about that.

Nuke all the countries with heavy dependence on oil.

So North America and Western Europe?

 

[Cheetah]

You have to love American politics where the president is judged on factors which are largely completely out of his control.

Eh, for once I'll partly defend American politics by noting that that attitude is nothing special to Americans.

Around election-time in Norway, the sitting government easily gains or loses 10 percentage points in the polls and actual vote depending on the state of the world economy. Fat lot a government ruling 5 million people can do about...

It's really amazing to me how unprepared we are for higher fuel prices. People seem to stretch their budgets fiercely, and then are shocked when some prices go up, as expected.

Never underestimate human stupidity I suppose. And don't ever fall in the trap to think that this kind of stupidity is only found in the USA.

Norway is lucky in that we're partly shielded from rising oil prices, not only because we're a major producer ourselves, but also because we have huge taxes on gas, which means the government is at least able to soften that particular blow by lowering the taxes.

 

[classical_hero]

I think that Americans have cheap gas and yet they complain about the prices. Clearly they have been used to artificially low prices and that has hurt them in the long run and it has meant they are stuck in a rut with cars they should not have.

 

[NickyJ]

I think that Americans have cheap gas and yet they complain about the prices. Clearly they have been used to artificially low prices and that has hurt them in the long run and it has meant they are stuck in a rut with cars they should not have.

Eh, considering we used to have gas at roughly three dollars flat at the beginning of the year, now we're getting close to four dollars and some places five dollars, all in the period of four months, I would be rather upset too. Also, take into account predictions of six dollars by June. That's roughly a three dollar jump in six months. People just don't really like spending twice as much for necessary transportation than they did at the beginning of the year.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Eh, considering we used to have gas at roughly three dollars flat at the beginning of the year, now we're getting close to four dollars and some places five dollars, all in the period of four months, I would be rather upset too. Also, take into account predictions of six dollars by June. That's roughly a three dollar jump in six months. People just don't really like spending twice as much for necessary transportation than they did at the beginning of the year.

Then maybe we should destroy Big Oil and the Petroleum Lobby (which would also make for a great band name).

 

[NickyJ]

Then maybe we should destroy Big Oil and the Petroleum Lobby (which would also make for a great band name).

Destroying oil doesn't exactly make it cheaper.

 

[Cutlass]

I think that Americans have cheap gas and yet they complain about the prices. Clearly they have been used to artificially low prices and that has hurt them in the long run and it has meant they are stuck in a rut with cars they should not have.

It isn't that the US has artificially low prices. It is that nations with more foresight have artificially high prices. Other developed nations have high taxes on gas that encourage higher fuel efficiency and alternatives. The US encourages the opposite.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Destroying oil doesn't exactly make it cheaper.

It frees politicians from the corporate influence ($) that prevents us from moving on towards alternative fuels and high-speed mass transportation faster, which will lower oil prices.