As gas prices soar, Odumbama pays steep cost too in poll plummet
As gas prices climb higher and Odumbama drives to his fundraisers in armored limos and SUVs urging Americans to use more fuel-efficient forms of energy, he's starting to pay a higher price too -- in poll numbers.
A new Washington Post-ABC News Poll this week finds about two-out-of-three Americans now disapprove of the Chicago Democrat's job on gas prices, whatever that's been.
Nearly as many (59%) disapprove of Obama's job on the still sluggish economy, including 50% who intensely disapprove. That's the worst yet in a Post poll and an increase of nine points in the last month.
Of course, it's still a long time (239 days) until Nov. 6 when the nation gets to render a real verdict on Obama, who threatens to finish the job if he gets a second term. But then it's already been a long time (1,147 days) since the ex-state senator came into office promising all sorts of things if only we'd spend nearly a trillion dollars on his stimulus plan, which has made the term "Recovery Summer" a guaranteed laugh line.
Last Friday's employment numbers confirmed this 49-month jobs recession as the longest since World War II. And an IBD editorial addresses Obama's energy policy here.
The new Post Poll also finds that Obama's overall job approval rating, which was 50% approve and 46% disapprove last month, has now flipped and started back down again, 50% disapprove-46% approve. Support plummeted steeply especially among independents and non-college-graduate whites.
Of course, even a Chicago Democrat knows the lethality of soaring gas prices in election years. So, Obama says all the right things, expressing sympathy to those families with hard-hit fuel budgets, blaming Iran, Mideast turmoil and Republicans and pointing out that domestic oil production is up.
He neglects to mention that production increases are despite his policies, not because of them. Current drilling on federal lands is mostly the result of permits granted by the previous administration, not this fellow. Drilling permits are down on federal property; the oil increase is coming from private lands with owners responding to the market.
While Obama says he wants to boost domestic oil production to increase energy independence, he touts access to new reserves off Brazil. His vetoing of the no-brainer Keystone XL pipeline proposal seems inexplicable. And then his active personal legislative lobbying last week to defeat its Senate rebirth seems duplicitous, since the pipeline would bring more than 700,000 barrels a day of oil from the secure source in Canada.
Of course, Obama will take some photo op steps in coming months to appear to address the rising gas price problems. Probably release some oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is like tossing food from a parade float to address the nation's nutrition problems.
Showing his keen grasp of free market forces, Odumbama has ordered Justice officials to investigate oil speculation. Of course, there's oil speculation. It's called the futures market. And watching Obama's policies instead of his words, those experts see higher prices coming ahead, as do most Americans in the poll.
When taking office, Energy Secy. Stephen Chu expressed a desire to drive U.S. gas prices to the European levels of $8-$9 a gallon, much like taxation on cigarettes to discourage their use. This administration has achieved more than half that European goal already.
Perhaps the clearest commitment of Obama to his extreme environmental agenda came recently on Capitol Hill where Chu was asked if the president's overall goal was "to get our price lower?"
Chu replied, "No. The overall goal is to decrease our dependency on oil." (Note: Not "foreign oil" but "oil.")
For now, however, the political price for that goal is increasing. Obama has long held significant leads in hypothetical election match-ups against both Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, both of whom tout the need to develop the nation's own vast resources to boost energy independence. Now, the Post-ABC News Poll finds the Democrat statistically tied with both Republicans.
A new Rassmussen Reports tracking poll finds Romney leading Obama by five points for the third straight day. The same survey finds 83% of Republicans supportive of Romney, while84% of Democrats support Obama. However, while only 6% of GOP voters would consider crossing over to vote for the Democrat, twice that many Democrats (12%) would consider voting for Romney. |
