Jimmy Carter Déjà Vu: Gas Prices Shockingly Increase During Newscast, Pres. Obama Scheduled to Blame Someone, Anyone in Address to Nation about Soaring Gas Prices (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on February 23, 2012
Some years ago when Pres. Jimmy Carter was in office, I was a young college student visiting family in southern California. I drove myself from Arizona solo for the first time in my life, and was understandably nervous about making the 400-mile trip by myself across the desert in my beat-up Chevy Impala.
I didn’t know until then to fear gas stations.
The lines to the gas pumps were horrific during that period in the nation, but especially in Los Angeles County. I remember that the procession of cars often circled and snaked into the street and sometimes around the block. As I sat trapped in my old car at a California gas station, inching up ever so slowly over the course of an hour or two to fill my nearly empty tank, the gas prices jumped by a nickel or so per gallon. Gas price displays weren’t digital in those days, so a gas station employee had to carry out placards with numbers and replace those that were posted on the station’s big road sign.
I helplessly watched. As did everyone else who had been waiting in line for more than an hour — suffice it to say that stunned and profane fury was unleashed upon that hapless employee.
Witnessing a gas price increase right before our eyes was surreal.
Kinda like this in the Diane Sawyer “World News” video below where gas is now $4.99 a gallon for regular gas in California — oh, but wait, it jumped 10 cents during the news broadcast, suddenly shooting up to $5.09 per gallon.
It’s déjà vu, it’s the Era of Jimmy Carter all over again during the never-ending, dismal Obama Era of Hopenchange.
Pres. Obama will be addressing the nation tonight on America’s escalating gas prices> — the highest of which were in California, but may be higher now in Florida and Alaska and other regions, where gas is hitting $6.00 or more — and of course, will take no blame whatsoever.
And yet, he and other Democrats, as well as the media, relentlessly blamed Pres. Bush when gas prices went over $3.00 a gallon. Admittedly, there are many factors out of Barack Obama’s control when it comes to gas price increases, as has been the case with all presidents (which never stopped Obama, Democrats, or the evening news from blaming Bush). But if the Current Occupier of the Oval Office is going to take front-page credit when gas prices drop, well, he should shoulder some responsibility now.
But he won’t. And the liberal media and Democrat party won’t expect him to nor will hold him accountable as they would if there was an “R” after his name.
Liberal Mainstream Media Rule of Blame: Blame the current president if he is a Republican, blame anyone and everyone else if the current president is a Democrat.
Reported by Reuters, Obama goes on offense over high gasoline prices:
As Republican presidential candidates toss barbs at Barack Obama over expensive gasoline, the U.S. president and his team are going on the offensive with a strategy to divert blame and prepare voters for higher costs.
In subtle and not so subtle ways, Obama, a Democrat, is raising the issue of high prices to promote his own policy priorities and blunt criticism from the men vying to unseat him in the November 6 election.His strategy is both politically- and policy-oriented. The president wants to advance his plans to increase renewable energy sources and reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil.
But he also needs to win the war of words to gain an upper hand over Republicans in Western battleground states such as Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, where people drive a lot and feel the sting of rising prices acutely.
Republicans see many weaknesses to exploit. They blame Obama for not doing enough to increase domestic production of fossil fuels and cite his decision to block a new oil pipeline from Canada as evidence that he is beholden to environmentalists.
Rising gasoline costs have brought the issue to the forefront of the presidential campaign. So Obama has started to pepper his speeches with references to prices at the pump.
I posted this video last week, but feel it’s relevant to post again for those who may have missed it the first time.
From Boston Herald, Obama over barrel:
Despite improving economic data and the soap opera that the GOP primary has become, the White House has a new worry — rising oil prices.
Oil is once again over $100 a barrel, and analysts are warning that $5-a-gallon gasoline is a serious possibility. When oil prices rise, consumers get angry. And when consumers get angry, they inevitably blame whoever is in the White House. And when they blame the president, it is much more difficult for him to get re-elected.
[...]
With the housing market still in the doldrums and millions of Americans unemployed or underemployed, global tensions over Iran’s nuclear ambitions are translating into yet another threat to the fragile economic recovery. Higher oil prices affect almost every economic sector, and are arriving when there is no cushion.
Businesses that had begun talking of plans to start hiring additional personnel are more likely to put them on hold as transportation costs rise.
For this White House, the most dangerous aspect of higher oil prices may be another blow to consumer confidence. It may not be fair, but Americans who feel economically vulnerable lower their job approval for the president.
President Barack Obama’s approval rating has inched back up to 49 percent, up three points from six months ago. But there is a lot of volatility to indicators like that in a weak economy.
Reported yesterday by Lynchberg News, SWVA gas price spike predicted by end of Sunday:
ROANOKE, VA — As if the 42 cent in the average price per gallon of regular unleaded gas since December 30, 2011 hasn’t been bad enough, one gas price tracking agency forecasts a spike by the end of this coming weekend.
GasBuddy.com sent out an e-mail this afternoon (Wednesday), in which its analysts predicts a price surge of between 5-20 cents per gallon by the end of Sunday. The reasoning behind this painful prediction for your wallet: A refinery fire in Washington state.
Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy.com senior petroleum analyst, says prices are already going up across the West Coast region, as well as the Great Lakes region. Some places in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky have seen price spikes of between 30-45 cents per gallon today.
“With the refinery fire, motorists should expect prices to rise in similar fashion as last February when the Libyan situation unfolded,” wrote petroleum analyst Gregg Laskoski.
AAA Mid-Atlantic sent out its own e-mail concerned about soaring gas prices earlier Wednesday. The consumer group noted that today’s (Wednesday’s) Virginia average gas price $3.55, is just three cents shy of the national average.
From Petoskey News, Analyst: More gas price hikes likely through spring:
The price for regular unleaded gasoline jumped 20 cents or more to $3.699 per gallon at many area gas stations Wednesday, a rise of 20 cents or more.
One observer of fuel-price trends reports similar trends elsewhere around the Midwest and beyond, and expects more increases in the weeks and months to come.
Prior to midday Wednesday, regular unleaded had been priced between $3.45 and $3.50 at most stations in Petoskey and neighboring communities.
Gasbuddy.com, a fuel price-monitoring website that relies on volunteer spotters, reported that Michigan’s statewide average price for regular gasoline was $3.655 today — up by about 22 cents since Tuesday.
Jason Toews, a co-founder of Gasbuddy.com, said substantial price jumps also have been seen in states such as Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky and West Virginia.
“We’re seeing the wholesale price for gas jump up big time,” Toews said. “It’s translating into higher prices at the pump.”
Tightening of the gasoline supply, driven by fires and shutdowns at various U.S. refineries that turn crude oil into gasoline, is a key factor influencing the price increases seen this week, Toews said.
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