Hypocrisy and lies: The Obama/MSM combined spin on skyrocketing gas prices

posted at 9:21 am on February 24, 2012 by

Pres. Obama, in full damage control mode over skyrocketing gasoline prices, relied on the establishment media for part of his defense:

“Some politicians, they see this as a political opportunity. I know you’re shocked by that. Last week the lead story in one newspaper said, ‘Gasoline prices are on the rise and Republicans are licking their chops.’ That’s a quote. That’s the lead. Licking their chops. Only in politics do people root for bad news. They greet bad news so enthusiastically,” Obama said.

Although Allahpundit noted the general hypocrisy of Democrats when it comes to partisanship, It’s not like the Dems ever made rising gas prices a political issue is it?

Well, okay… maybe Hillary Clinton, Barbara Boxer and Chuck Schumer blamed the Bush administration for gas prices. But it’s not like Pres. Obama, great uniter that he hoped to be, ever made gasoline a political issue, did he?

Obama’s speech yesterday was filled with whoppers, perhaps the biggest being: “There are no short-term silver bullets when it comes to gas prices.” Obama could drive down oil prices right now by announcing an aggressive effort to boost domestic supplies, as Bush did by lifting a moratorium in 2008. Instead, as Swift Energy President Bruce Vincent says, Obama has “done nothing but restrict access and delay permitting.” Of course, the concept of an Obama speech concerned with gas prices is itself a bit of a whopper — Obama himself said during his 2008 presidential campaign that he wanted higher prices to force consumers to use less gasoline. Now gas prices are up and consumption is down, but Obama is not taking a victory lap.

It is worth noting that Obama lifted his “licking their chops” line from the media, as the press is going to help him with this issue as much as any other. Consider this gem buried in the NYT coverage of Obama’s problem:

Gas prices did not figure prominently in the Republican debate on Wednesday in Arizona, where the candidates trained most of their fire on one another.

Translation: the fair and balanced crew at CNN did not ask the GOP field about gas prices on the day Obama felt compelled to publicly defend himself on them. The establishment media is interested in painting Republicans as fixated on birth control and cheering higher gas prices? Shocka!

Blowback

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And yet almost half of voters – if you can believe the polls – still think this guy should serve a second term. Just try to convince me that about half the country aren’t just plain idiots.

climbnjump on February 24, 2012 at 10:02 AM

About half the voters a) live in urban areas where gas price is irrelevant, b) make too much to care, c) don’t have to commute, d) charge gas bill to government account, e) are mentally incapable of connecting gas and grocery prices, and/or f) all of the above. Coincidentally, all these groups are reliable Obama voters.

Archivarix on February 24, 2012 at 10:40 AM

Obluffer would have absolutely nothing to lose by putting his green convictions where his mocking mouth is and testing out his convictions by approving the Keystone Pipeline, issuing the drilling permits and allowing the oil industry to explore and frack because the worst that could happen is that oil and gas prices would go down and he’d probably win back many of his former supporters who are currently on the fence. But no, he’s just so spiteful and way more interested in making the American people suffer that he’d rather consort with pond scum–algae and leftist media–than help the country he swore to protect and promised to uplift.

stukinIL4now on February 24, 2012 at 12:35 PM

Rush is talking about “pond scum” & algae right now…

At the risk of insulting pond-scum everywhere, if we replaced BHO with algae, we’d be at serious risk of raising the IQ in the Oval Office… *sigh*

“Cogito, ergo TEA Party!” ~ DeepWheat

DeepWheat on February 24, 2012 at 1:49 PM

Actually, the biofuel from algae is a fairly promising research area – as far as “green energy” research projects go. I used to manage a research contract at the Air Force Academy, and they are doing a lot of research in that area – in fact some of their researchers worked for me as contractors. What I had not yet seen by the time I left (last summer) was just what kind of fuel efficiency / energy content we can actually get out of it.

The Air Force is putting a lot of effort (and money) into alternative fuels and “green energy” – as with the Academy’s new $18M solar farm, algae and other biofuels, wave motion electric generators, and such. I don’t have a problem with professors and students doing research, but the military is being pushed into spending a lot of money on actually implementing this stuff. Unfortunately, with Obummer in the WH, even military officers know they can get promoted by pushing unfeasible technologies, as long as they’re in line with Obummer’s agenda.

dentarthurdent on February 24, 2012 at 4:34 PM

dentarthurdent,

What I had not yet seen by the time I left (last summer) was just what kind of fuel efficiency / energy content we can actually get out of it.

Probably not very much.

Karl on February 24, 2012 at 8:16 PM

‘Gasoline prices are on the rise and Republicans are licking their chops.’ That’s a quote.

No it’s not.
Do a search, & the only one quoted as saying that is the Spinmaster-in-Chief.

itsnotaboutme on February 25, 2012 at 1:33 PM