Liberal Media - Gas Prices Are A Problem Because It Hurts Obama's Reelection Chances

[red states rule]

In the world of the liberal media soaring gas prices are not a problem for working people like me. They are not a problem for families trying to make ends meet

No, they are problem because it hurts Obama's reelection bid

Here it is in one "reports" own words. Everything revolves around how it hepls/hurts Obama. Nothing else seems to matter to the left and their allies in the media





Costly gasoline clouds Obama re-election prospects


WASHINGTON – With gas prices climbing and little relief in sight, President Barack 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, California 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.

"It's just another burden when things were already pretty tough," he said.

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.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110423/ap_on_re_us/us_obama_gas_prices

[red states rule]

Also, high gas prices are YOUR faul acording to liberal Cynthia Tucker and Obama supporter




As gas prices soar, Republicans and oil company executives have revived a rallying cry that echoed around the country the last time gas prices spiked: “Drill, baby, drill!” Republicans in Congress, especially, have berated President Barack Obama for his policies, which limit drilling in environmentally-sensitive areas and attempt to reduce our reliance on climate-changing fossil fuels.

The president’s opponents posit a seductive and simple idea: The U.S. has untapped resources that ought to be put to good use. If federal policy allowed more drilling, gas prices would drop — following standard rules of supply and demand.

But like so many simple ideas, this one is wrongheaded and shortsighted. The U.S. cannot drill its way into free-flowing, low-cost gasoline. The supply of U.S. oil isn’t big enough to make a dent: we have about two percent of the world’s known reserves.

The larger problem is one of worldwide demand (though speculators and Middle East turmoil are blamed for current price spikes). As nations such as China and India grow more prosperous, they want their share of the world’s limited energy resources. Like Americans, members of the Chinese and Indian middle-class now view cars as symbols of prosperity and independence.

If you have a limited product that lots of people want, you can charge a lot for it — as any kid with a lemonade stand on a hot July day could tell you. That suggests that prices at the pump will likely continue to spike and then ease slightly, as they have for the past few years, but they’re unlikely to drop significantly.

Our most far-sighted politicians and our most thoughtful prognosticators have known that for years — and said so. Indeed, analysts for a large British bank, HSBC, warned last month that the world may have no more than 50 years worth of oil left, at current rates of consumption, and demand could lead to “very significant price rises.”

Despite multiple warnings, the American political system is so dysfunctional that very little has changed since a president named Jimmy Carter tried to get us to get serious about reducing our dependence on gasoline. Oh, cars and trucks get better gas mileage than they did back then. But the nation still lacks a coherent policy for radically reducing consumption.

The frustration over prices at the pump is likely a major contributor to Obama’s sagging approval ratings.

http://blogs.ajc.com/cynthia-tucker/2011/04/22/furious-over-gas-prices-look-in-the-mirror/?cxntfid=blogs_cynthia_tucker