This just proves how damn dumb Bill Press really is. Anyone with a brain knows that Bush thumbed his nose at OPEC by shifting millions of barrels of oil purchases to the Russians, causing oil prices to plummet. I don't recall the exact numbers, but Iraq shipped only about 20-25% of the oil in a recent month that they did the month before. Presumably, Saudi also took a big hit.
nope, gwb didn't shift anything, neither he nor the government buys crude oil (with the rare exception of additions to the strategic petroleum reserve), our crude is all bought by private companies (either directly by refiners or by brokers to be resold to refiners)
and, in any case, merely shifting purchases from one seller to another has no effect on the price because oil is fungible and its price is set on a world-wide market
only a reduction in total world demand or an increase in total world supply, or some combination of the two can bring about a price decline
all of that notwithstanding, i totally agree with you that bill (de)press(ed)is really, really, really dumb
Ha - that was established a long time ago: "And what about NORA TURLOCK? Has anyone heard from HER?" He was, of course, referring to NOTRA TRULOCK, the MAN who was in charge of security at Los Alamos National Labs during the Wen Ho Lee incident?
I sent CNN a scathing e-mail on that gaffe, and merely received their usual generic reply, thanking me for being a viewer, blah, blah, blah :-(