* benefits at the pump

[babylonsister]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-09-20-bush-gas-prices_x.htm

For Bush, cheaper gas is premium

By Susan Page, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — When it comes to President Bush's approval rating — the number that measures his political health — one factor seems more powerful than any Oval Office address or legislative initiative.

It's the price of a gallon of gas.

Statisticians who have compared changes in gas prices and Bush's ratings through his presidency have found a steady relationship: As gas prices rise, his ratings fall. As gas prices fall, his ratings rise.

For some Americans, analysts speculate, gas prices provide a shorthand reading of the general state of the economy. Even though prices at the pump are largely outside the president's control, he gets credit when they fall — and blame when they rise.

"Gas prices are a price everybody knows because it hangs on the street in big letters," says Stuart Thiel, an economist at DePaul University in Chicago who has been tracking the trend for several years.

A statistical analysis by Doug Henwood, editor of the liberal newsletter Left Business Observer, found that an "uncanny" 78% of the movement in Bush's ratings could be correlated with changes in gas prices. Based on trends in crude oil prices, Henwood predicted last Thursday that it "wouldn't be surprising to see his approval numbers rise into the mid-40s."

more...

[Vickers]

1. Wow, when he took office and gas was $1.16, his approval rating

must've been a gazillion percent! :crazy:

***NEWSFLASH: REPUBLICANS MANIPULATE***
******GAS PRICES FOR POLITICAL GAIN******

[acmavm]

3. Amazing how stupid the American public is, isn't it? They don't

connect the fact that this guy comes from an oil family, that they can pull strings here and abroad and open the spigots, get the refineries cranking, put more fuel on the market and cut the prices.

I bet the same clowns are too damn lazy to try to figure out what happens after the elections.

[HereSince1628]

2. I can't escape the nagging feeling I've been "pumped" in order

to manipulate gas prices to preserve the Chimperor's rubber-stamp control on Congress. Do I have proof? No. Just that nagging feeling. The price of gas isn't even close to cheap here and the r's are talking "great economy.'

And in a normal decade I might chalk that up to dumb luck for Georgie...But now I have the benefit of Cheney's lectures in which he says...'If you can imagine it your enemy has already done it.'

[fasttense]

4. Just imagine if all the thieving corporations start lowering their prices

at election time. For six years they been stealing us blind but come a few months before election all of a sudden prices start to go down. Can you imagine Wal-Mart doing this so the thieves in congress will continue to pretend to be elected officials. Then you get the corporate media preaching the virtues of our dear leader. This repuke government is so corrupt, nothing short of a revolution will change anything.

[riona]

5. The oil companies

know which party benefits them.

[bluestateguy]

6. Another Operation Protect the Baby Bush story

Protect the little Baby Bush...

[woodsprite]

7. I heard a freepers take on it the other day.

She's the same lady who wrote into our paper saying we should THANK * for the drop in gas prices. She is our babysitter, and a very good reliable one, but I did not know how much of a "staunch repub" she was until I found out she was the one that wrote that stupid letter. I used to think she was being that way to get my goat (no, not my pet goat). Now I just think she's deranged. I have a bet going with her - I bet her a tank of gas that pump prices will raise at least 10 cents/gal within 2 wks after the election. She thinks we'll hit $1.50 by Christmas, so we'll see. I think I have it covered because even if it doesn't go up due to "politics" after the election, we have Thanksgiving travel coming. :evilgrin:

She explained why she believes prices will continue to drop to me as 1) more supply, less demand, 2) ANWR - she said that there is plenty of land up there for drilling AND the caribou. She quoted something like .05% of the Alaskan wilderness is currently used by humans and there's plenty of oil up there, 3) fewer hurricanes than predicted, 4) * can't be in it for his friends because then he would be ensuring that the price stayed high, and 5) HISTORICALLY, THE ONLY TIME THAT GAS PRICES LOWERED BEFORE AND ROSE RIGHT AFTER AN ELECTION WAS IN 199? AND 2000 - AND BOTH TIMES CLINTON WAS PRES.

Yah know - I just don't get this girl. She's a good person, not overly religious at all, she has all kinds of friends (straight, gay, etc), and she's marrying interracially in January. She is everything that the GOP base preaches against, yet she is blinded by them. Either she is brainwashed by her parents, or she's drinking some heavy duty kool aid. I keep talking to her, but it literally falls on deaf ears. She, and her fiance make up that never waivering 35%. :banghead:

Personally, I really *BELIEVE* that in her case, it's a case of wanting to be what is represented by the GOP - independent and wealthy.

[ProSense]

8. The Best Legislation Money Could Buy

Apr 24, 2006

The Best Legislation Money Could Buy

Oil and Gas Executives got $8 Billion in Giveaways and Tax Breaks From the Special Interest Energy Bill in Addition to Their Sky-High Profits and All They had to do was Pad the Campaign Coffers of Republican Leaders

Snip...

Gas Prices

When George Bush Took Office: $1.52

Last Month: $2.50

Last Year: $2.22

Today: $2.91

Last Summer: $3.06

This Summer: $?


DCCC