With gas prices on the rise, Fox News has been pretty aggressive in trying to convince its audience that President Obama deserves the blame for pain at the pump. With that in mind, Media Matters put together a fascinating item that took a stroll down memory lane.
In the early summer of 2008, when the average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. topped $4, a wide variety of Fox News figures were quick to push a simple message: don't blame the Bush/Cheney administration.
Indeed, Fox News was rather explicit on the issue, telling its viewers, "[N]o president has the power to increase or to lower gas prices."
For the record, I think Fox News was entirely right -- at the time. Though the network has shifted gears, and has somehow reached the conclusion that President Obama can singlehandedly affect gas prices, Fox News' 2008 position was the correct one.
I'd just add, as an aside, that long-time readers may recall that I gave Bush/Cheney some grief about this at the time, but the details and context matter. I never said the Republican White House had the power to lower gas prices, but I did argue that Bush was wrong to promise, as a candidate, that he could reduce the cost of gas by "jawboning" countries in the Middle East.
My beef was with candidate Bush making promises in 2000 he knew he couldn't keep, not President Bush's inability to snap his fingers and lower prices.
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Clearly this IS all Obama's fault for not unilaterally invading Iran soon enough.
I think the administration could do more to regulate speculation and limit monopolistic practices by oil/refining companies. But whether he needs congressional help or not, the laws of supply and demand are largely in the control of a very limited number of cooperating people, all of whom are driven by profit. Lower gas prices are not in their best interest, and the fact that they give so much to the Republican party should be a good indication of who will keep prices lower.
You are absolutely correct sir . Regulation would return sanity to the markets. I found this primer - speculation 101
http://money.howstuffworks.com/oil-speculation-raise-gas-price1.htm
The GOP will use any issue that they feel will anger voters. The problem for them is that as voters become more educated with these issues, they are forced to move on to the next "scare tactic", to further their agenda.
Obama and his team methodically address these issues as they arise and offer voters much more confidence than Romney ever could.
In his second term Obama will no doubt be successful in regulating oil speculation and present voters with a much better plan than would Romney.
Fortunately, voters have already experienced what a Romney administration would be like..and need to look no further back than the last Bush presidency.
Voters will no doubt "remember in November...and vote Democratic.
If Obama made any blatant move to regulate speculation, the Republicans would be howling and it would give them an issue. The AG is the one best suited to investigate because Obama can take a hands off stance and claim that he does not want to interfere in an investigation. But, Fox and the Republicans seem to forget that video lives on and on. These contradictory positions will eventually catch up to them and diminish their credibility.
If it were true that a political candidate could determine the cost of gas then look no further than the Republican party. The Big Oil Candidates and their constituents. When are they going to realize that most of the American people are more intellegient than they are we have figured them out. It's all about the money that's it.
Whoa there now ! Are you suggesting that FOX would be biased or perhaps even be far from fair and balanced? Can I assume that by using their own words against them that you think you have somehow caught them in a lie or at least an intentional flip flop? Puhlease, we all know that FOX news is journalism at its best! Sure most of their reporters have no real journalist qualifications and sure they are owned by Rupert Murdoch who has been quoted as saying FOX is not a news network but an entertainment network and that he himself uses his media empire to push his personal bias, but sheesh ...uh , wait a minute...2+ 2 = ?....
FLUSH RUSH
(His every word becomes a turd)
Dearest Steve, would the increase in the mnoney supply have anything to do with rising gas prices? The policy of increasing the debt ceiling along with increased spending would increase the money supply. In addition QE1 QE2 also increased the money supply. It is not rocket science, merely economics.
The difference is, Obama and Chu WANTED gas prices to rise in order to force us to spend tax money on their utterly useless, unsustainable "green" crap.
Stop using 1/3 of our corn crop to contaminate the gas with ethanol and we would save $.70/gallon. Oh, and lower food prices as well as help with that pesky world-wide food shortage.
LOL! "Let's back off our statements from 4 years ago blaming Bush for high gas prices now that it's making us look bad."