So far the media is their continued efforts to show their love for, and obedience to, President Obama, have given the always available pass to avoid exposure on higher gasoline prices. The Media Researcher Center did an analysis of news coverage of gas prices rising under President Bush and a similar rise now under President Obama. Their research shows the media covered rising gas prices 250% more during the Bush experience than they have with the recent rise. Plus, they blamed government for the price rise 15 times more often then than they have now.
This won’t continue. Let me show the ways Obama is exposed on this one. He can’t wiggle out on so many fronts. Just keep all of these in mind as you watch the White House try to spin this one.
1. January,2008, Obama tells the San Francisco Chronicle that his cap and trade would make electricity rates go through the roof.
2. Dr. Chu, the Secretary of Energy tells the press in 2008, “we need to find a way to get gasoline prices to $10 a gallon.”
3. Obama has scaled back or reversed nearly every major offshore oil opportunity. He has reimposed a moratorium on drilling off the coasts. He has killed leases in crucial areas of Alaska.
4. The EPA is slapping daily regulations on the coal industry.
5. After the BP fiasco, Obama shut down existing operations in the deep water Gulf of Mexico.
6. In his State of the Union Message Obama said he would raise taxes on oil and gas
Those are big tracks that will be hard to cover up. The GOP is already starting the attack. Mitch McConnell went after the proposed Obama gas and oil tax, calling it a mini-van tax. Salazar had to capitulate and issue a token new permit for the Gulf.
Once again, the President finds himself in a bad situation. His spending and Obamacare work cost dearly in the mid-term elections. His energy strategy, always an explosive issue, will cost even more if gas prices continue to go up.
Dr. Chu may get his wish. But, he won’t be Secretary of Energy under the new president.
