Whereas someone like me always cares about keeping the price of gas low so that our economy can boom and so that poor people can get to work, many only care about high gas prices when a Republican is in charge. Through the beauty of custom search tools on google, you can now time-travel back and see how journalists and bloggers and politicians in the past reacted to certain events and then compare their reactions to events of the present day. You can expose them then as hypocrites and opportunists, who only care about a subject when it suits their interests, and who seize on bad information merely to move their political agenda. Let's compare the reaction of the liberal elites in the media to the high gasoline prices in 2008 (when Republican Bush was in charge) to the high gasoline prices in 2011 (when Democrat Obama is in charge. In 2008, there were stories like this in the news- "Speaker Pelosi blasts President Bush over gas prices," "As gas prices and oil profits soar, Bush promotes giveaways to corporations," "President Bush Focused On Gas Prices, Has No Idea How Much Gas Will Cost," "Bush Driving Up Gas Prices For His Oil Industry Buddies," "Public Faults Bush for Lack of Action on Energy," or "Obama hits McCain on economy, gas prices." Here we see stories of Democrats and liberals blaming Republicans and conservatives for the high gas prices, we see the usual liberal conspiracy theories trotted out to try to explain why reality doesn't fit, and we read about how the public actually focused on real issues way back then and was worried about the affect that high gas prices would have.
Today? Nothing. Nothing is written about in the MSM or talked about on the news blaming Obama for the high gas prices. Few people seem to be aware that rising gasoline prices likely will lead to economic growth being choked off and a double-dip recession. There seems to be little concern or mention of high gasoline prices with my friends and family, almost as if after several years of Democratic rule, the new norm of high unemployment and high gas prices is acceptable.
Via powerlineblog:
In any other administration, Obama's energy policies would be dominating the political debate. It is only because the administration has pursued so many disastrous policies--government medicine, bailouts, faux stimulus, unheard-of deficits--that energy has taken a back seat. It will not be long, however, before rising energy costs are again in the forefront of economic anxiety and political debate. Reuters reported "Oil rose on Wednesday after production shutdowns, falling U.S. inventories and growing demand sent Brent crude toward $100 a barrel for the first time since 2008."
Unless gas prices come down again to reasonable levels ($2), unemployment comes down to reasonable levels (6%), and economic growth returns (3+ GDP growth), it is pretty clear that we should reject the "New Normal" of Obama and his Democratic policies.