Posted on 03/06/2012 1:45:26 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
CBS News) President Obama on Tuesday scoffed at the notion he wants higher gas prices, as some of his critics claim.
Asked about the charge at his first formal White House press conference of the year, Mr. Obama replied to Fox News correspondent Ed Henry's question with a question of his own.
"From a political perspective, do you think the president of the United States going into re-election wants gas prices to go up higher? Is there anybody here who thinks that makes a lot of sense?"
Presidents of both parties have historically considered it harder to get votes if gas prices rise in the months before an election.
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich last month said on CBS This Morning that Mr. Obama "of course" wants gas prices to rise in order to push people to move to alternative energy sources.
In addition to the political reasons for lower gas prices, Mr. Obama noted that he wants them to help the economy.
"I meet folks every day who have to drive a long way to get to work and filling up this gas tank gets more and more painful and it's a tax out of their pocketbooks," he said. "When gas prices go up consumer spending often pulls back. We're in the midst of a recovery starting to build steam, and we don't want to reverse it."
Today's press conference gave Mr. Obama a moment in the media spotlight on a day that would have otherwise belonged to Mr. Gingrich and his Republican rivals -- 10 states are holding their Republican nominating contests today in what's known as "Super Tuesday."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
until December
I want a pony.
liar! liar! pantaloons on fire!
he really does not want lower gas prices he is laughing at us along with opec.
But ,But Loony Chu says you could care less about gas prices
“From a political perspective, do you think the president of the United States going into re-election wants gas prices to go up higher? Is there anybody here who thinks that makes a lot of sense?”
I was taught a long time ago that when one does not want to provide a specific and definitive answer to a question, one simply answers the question with a question - enough said.
what he says and what he does........watch for more EPA regs!
...scoff...
The guy doesn’t pay for his own gas....
Obama does this on every subject. He says “Oh, of course I don’t want that (fill in extremist view) and of course I want (fill in traditional value).
But his speeches and actions demonstrate he DOES want higher fuel prices. His energy secretary just said it before Congress! If Obama wanted lower energy costs he wouldn’t be going on about algae.
He wants lower prices in the sense that someday energy from algae just might be cheap.
Liberals always poo poo any reference to what they really are after.
“Obama says he wants lower gas prices”
Obama says he’s white.
Obama says he’s Jewish.
Obama says he’s American.
(Yawn)
He’ll say anything at this point; anybody believe HE still thinks he can win?
There is something really creepy about saying “I can’t possibly be for higher gas prices because I’m up for reelection.”
In a few months he won’t be up for reelection anymore. Then what?
I'm so tired of his "folks-y" references ... he's quoted on gas prices otherwise (not that the MSM takes note), and he couldn't care less about the impacts on the PAYING public.
......”Mr. Gingrich, for his part, is leading with it, framing his speeches around energy and running a half-hour video of his ideas in key Super Tuesday states. His plan is to inspire enough voters to win his home state of Georgia, and to do well in the neighboring states of Tennessee and Oklahoma, picking up enough delegates to justify continuing. While the headlines have focused on his silly promise of $2.50-a-gallon gas (no president can guarantee a world price), the speaker’s bigger contribution has come in his crystallization of two key arguments for the fall campaign.
The first is his point that this is not the usual, boring energy debate. For decades the nation has deadlocked over America’s supposedly limited natural resources, fighting over whether high gas prices made it worth touching, say, the supposedly pristine Alaskan wilderness. It’s been a debate in the context of scarcity.
Mr. Gingrich’s savvy has been to grasp that this is over, done, passé. America is embarking on a seismic energy shift. A decade of technological advances—from 3-D mapping, to fracking, to horizontal drilling—has turned this country into a resources monster in oil and gas and coal. The old, tired GOP argument is that we need to drill for energy security. The new, rebooted argument is that America is primed to become the largest energy producer in the world, with all the money, jobs and benefits that come with it.
In the context of abundance, energy development is political gold for the GOP. As Mr. Gingrich notes: It is a winning economic argument, a shift that could create “more than a million new jobs.” It is a winning deficit argument, since royalties and profits become a new cash stream to the government. It is a winning little-guy argument, since the beneficiaries of fracking are “people who own the property,” like “farmers.” It’s a winning heartland argument, since cheap natural gas is the way to “increase our manufacturing base.”
Energy also becomes, and this is the speaker’s second point, one of the strongest contrasts with Mr. Obama.”....
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203986604577255761338883798.
Mr. Obama knew each and every question that would be asked at that press conference. IT WAS A DOG AND PONY SHOW, it was a complete sham and staged event.
The press should be issued heavy duty knee pads that will not wear out until election day.
This issue is hurting Obama or he wouldn’t have held this press conference.
GO NEWT!!
He wants lower prices? Really? Outside of the political cost, I doubt he cares.
He doesn’t have to pay for gas, and never will touch his hand to a pump and pay for it the rest of his life. For him, gas prices are as relevant as chicken lice.
Gas prices will necessarily skyrocket when drilling is curtailed nationally, by a president schooled in Marxist economics.
Own it, Obama. It’s yours.
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