A little-noticed (except by Drudge) interview contains a potential bombshell for the President:
Meanwhile, a big issue on the minds of voters is the skyrocketing price of gas.
Obama referred to the phrase, “there’s no magic bullet.” The president said any politician who says there is one is not being truthful.
Still, an ABC poll released on Monday shows Obama is taking the blame.
The poll shows two-thirds of Americans disapprove of his handling of gas prices, which is a record high for the president, and only eight months before the election.
“Well look, as long as gas prices are going up, people are going to feel like I’m not doing enough, and I understand that,” Obama said.
The president said his fight for a payroll tax cut last year will help Americans afford higher gas prices.
“Ultimately, though there’s no silver bullet. The way we’re going to solve this problem is what we talk about today in our energy report,” Obama said.
The president said America has had the highest domestic oil production in more than a decade.
The nation now exports more crude than it imports, reducing dependence on foreign oil, along with new fuel efficiency standards for cars and investments in alternative fuels.
“The bigger driver of these gas prices is speculation of war in the Middle East, which is why we’ve been trying to reduce loose talk about a war there,” Obama said.
Republicans on the campaign trail see gas prices as a political opening against Obama.
‘Your opponents say they can get gas to the $2.50 range. What do you think Americans should be OK with?” Warmoth asked.
“First of all, nobody believes that. They know that’s just politics. Anybody who says we can get gas down to two bucks a gallon just isn’t telling the truth,” Obama said.
Obama did not give Warmoth an answer as to how much Americans should pay for gas.
However, Obama said his energy advisor did not rule out tapping the country’s oil reserves.
Of course he doesn’t answer, because he wants higher gas prices, but if he said that, he’d have no chance to be re-elected.
Just remember this interview from the 2008 campaign:
And don’t forget to make sure your tires are properly inflated!
And if you’re still complaining, get a trade-in!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vwVaEJ55Iw
Gas prices are Obama’s Waterloo, and he knows it, so he’s going to do everything that he can to spin, and deflect, and say it’s not his fault, when it’s clear that his Department of the Interior (part of the Executive Branch) is deliberately dragging its feet on drilling permits, with over 100 permit applications languishing at DOI as of February 2011, which is devastating the economy of the Gulf Coast. Of course, the fact that the south is largely Republican territory might also factor into Obama’s policies, given his track record.
As I said above, Obama really wants high gas prices, but he knows that he can’t admit it… so it’s up to us to point it out to those that don’t pay as much attention to politics as we do.
President Obama doesn’t want to admit he wants high gas prices to fulfill his fantasy land green agenda that the people have rejected. The teleprompter didn’t have an answer; hence, Obama reticence.
Unfortunately for the President, the higher gas prices aren’t caused by the Cap and Tax…uh, Trade system he wanted, so he’s not getting the additional tax revenue he wanted.
Riddle me this: If it take 5-10 years for a new well to come online and begin contributing to domestic oil/gas production, how is it possible for Bammie to take credit for the production increase witnessed since he took office?
the USA exports more crude than we import? If that is true then why are we at all dependent on foreign oil?
That is not quite right. We are importing crude from Venezuela, Mexico and Saudi Arabia and exporting finished products: gasoline, kerosene, fuel oil, chemical feedstocks, etc. That is more testimony to our failing economy not consuming those products and more global dynamism elsewhere which consumes them instead!
The other problem is he keeps deflating the dollar. $3 in March 2012 dollars buys you less of everything (except chances to eat lunch with Mrs. Obama) than $3 in January 2009 dollars.
It just makes liberals crazy that Americans are free to get into their cars any time of the day or night and go anywhere we please. Higher gas prices are one way to curtail our freedom of movement. People can’t afford to go on vacation right now. Now I’m hearing about people who can’t even afford gas to get to their jobs. Seems like I recall a quote about liberals wanting everyone to sit around freezing in the cold and the dark, but I can’t find it now. It does seem like that’s the goal, though.
Soon the question won’t be “Obama Can’t Answer How Much People Should Pay For Gas” but “Obama Can’t Answer How People Will Pay For Gas”
The Warmouth interview contains the following consecutive lines (not in quotes in original):
“The president said America has had the highest domestic oil production in more than a decade.
“The nation now exports more crude than it imports, reducing dependence on foreign oil, along with new fuel efficiency standards for cars and investments in alternative fuels.”
The syntax suggests that Obama is the source of the second claim.
This claim is utter, utter, ridiculous, absurd crap! Go to the U.S. DOE website and look up “net” imports and exports. You’ll see that the U.S. uses roughly 19 million barrels of both crude oil and refined products like gasoline and jet fuel, but produces only around 6.5 million barrels of oil per day.
To claim that the U.S. is a NET exporter of oil is so astonishingly false–as in, it ain’t even close–that you have to wonder how this got by all those alleged layers of fact-checkers in the MSM.
Sure as hell wish some reporter would ask Obozo a) if he said what the Warmouth transcript implies he said; and b) if he believes that statement is still accurate. But of course, sadly, no reporter wants to cross Duh One.
This makes anything Palin ever said look brilliant by comparison.
Link here: http://www.eia.gov/energy_in_brief/foreign_oil_dependence.cfm
In 2010 the U.S. imported 11.8 million barrels per day of oil and refined product, and exported 2.3 million, giving net imports of 9.4 million barrels *every day*.
If the claim that we export more crude than we import was made by Obozo, it ranks right up there with “57 states” in being…stupid beyond belief.