Figure 1. Retail Gas Prices in 2004
Posted on 01/12/2005 1:44:12 PM PST by stevejackson
Yes, the election is behind us, but it is not yet time to heal the wounds. We cannot let the Democrats forget the vitriol they spewed during the campaign. Their ugly tactics are part of history. Forget history and we repeat our mistakes. Remember Bob Woodward’s charge that President Bush and the Saudis had a secret “deal” to keep oil prices low in the run-up to the 2004 presidential election? (See also here). There is no documentation showing that such a deal was ever made. Historical oil and gas prices in 2004 provide empirical evidence that no such deal was ever implemented.
Anyone with an Internet browser can find historical retail gasoline prices at the U.S. Energy Information Administration website. I downloaded their gas price data for 2004 and made it into the chart/graph shown below in Figure 1.
Shown below in Figure 2 are crude oil prices for 2004. Gasoline is refined from crude oil.
Notice that average U.S. gas prices and crude oil futures steadily rose throughout 2004. Notice also that prices peaked right around election time and steadily decreased thereafter. This data is contrary to Bob Woodward’s conspiracy theory. If Woodward was right, then gas prices would have steadily decreased in the run-up to the election. If there was a conspiracy, then it was one of the most poorly executed in history.
Mr. Woodward is considered to be a pillar of journalism by some Americans. After all, he exposed President Nixon’s Watergate shenanigans. But the fact that Woodward would stoop to lying about President Bush shows the sheer desperation of the Democratic Party in 2004. Their hatred of Bush was so deep that emotion overpowered all the rules.
The Left’s poster children, like George Soros, Michael Moore and the NAACP, spent millions of dollars trying to deceive the American people about President Bush, Iraq, the economy, etc. Look what it got them. Americans -- especially the heartland -- didn’t buy it. Bush garnered the largest popular vote in U.S. history. The President received a real majority, 51% or 59,291,983 votes. The Left can complain all it likes, but that’s the way our system works. If Americans were so fed up with Bush, they wouldn’t have reelected him. He now has a true mandate. Will the Democrats’ resounding loss of the presidency, House, and Senate cause them to think about what is happening? In the short term, I doubt it.
Sure we live in a divided nation, but the division is not between the right and the left, it is between the right and the wrong.
http://netwmd.com/articles/article855.html
On the contrary...It seems to have been well executed, just not by the Bush Administration...
Maybe I misunderstand your point with this post. But the Dums would want the prices HIGH before the election. They would thereby be creating a false pocket book issue. You know us idiots out here supposedly vote our pocket books. If anything I think the graphs prove the point.
Maybe my problem is I don't know WHO Woodward is accusing of Caonspiracy. If it's the Repubs, then I would have to agree with the article.
Yeah, I think that was his charge - that Bush was in league with the Saudis to bring price down prior to election. Or some such nonsensical conspiracy theory that eminates from these whack jobs on the Left.....
But you may also recall that Kerry alternatively called Bush weak for not pursuing such a strategy. Poor prez, damned if he did....and damned if he didn't.....
But, Bush didn't fall for it. He has plenty of friends in the biz. I'm sure someone told him what was going on. I'm just glad they are all trying to balance their checkbooks.
I remember reading an article about the Chinese and other anti-Bush forces manipulating gas prices. There was never a shortages, just manipulation of futures.
I should have known. Belushi,Casey, Bush Oil, the guy is a whackjob.
When you put Democrate and Conspiracy Theory in the same sentence it always goes bust.
Exactly.
It was a two-way conspiracy theory. They accused Bush of making a deal to keep gasoline low before the election, which clearly didn't happen. And then demanded that he release oil from the Strategic Reserve to bring oil down. But had he done it, it would have played into the first charge, that he was manipulating the price of oil to keeep it down.
Of course, all that overlooked the fact that Clinton did precisely that, release oil from the Reserve during the run-up to the election, to force the price of gasoline down temporarily. As soon as the election passed, the price shot back up.
In this case, the price was driven up right to the day of the election, upon which time it fell back. Someone was manipulating it, but it wasn't Bush.
the democrat book published before the election which argued that president bush was going to use his family ties to reduce oil prices before the election was...a dud!
there was a guy interviewed by lars larsen last night who says michael moore was registered to vote in 2 states and has received tax breaks on 2 houses in 2 states, against the law.
Hope he is prosecuted and does jail time.
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | 1/16/04 | Lucio Guerrero
Drivers of SUVs and other gas guzzlers may want to keep their vehicles parked over the summer.
That's because some experts are saying that gas could -- gulp -- hit the $3-a-gallon mark.
"It is not only possible, it is probable," said Fred Rozell, director of gasoline pricing for Oil Price Information Service, which tracks and reports on the oil industry.
"In the summer, we consume more gasoline than we produce. "[This year] we won't have that extra supply to help us." Winter weather, bolstering demand for heating fuels, already has cut U.S. crude stocks to the lowest level since 1975.
Good post! Not to mention that we get most of our oil from Venezuela...
The three top Democrats in the House, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Democratic Caucus Chair Bob Menendez of New Jersey, sent a letter to the White House demanding that Bush "fully explain the agreement that you or your administration reached with the Saudis to boost oil production and disclose any promises or commitments that have been made to the Saudis on behalf of the U.S."
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