Friday, April 6, 2012

Mitt Romney is telling the truth about gas prices.

I just heard that Mitt is denying his big oil ties, his support for oil subsidies, his opposition to increased fuel economy standards. Instead, he says, Obama's "attack ad" is simply Obama refusing to take responsibility for the fact that gas prices have doubled under Obama's watch.

At first, I was incensed. Then I realized, he was actually paying Obama a backhanded compliment. Check out this here chart:


Hey, he's right! Gas prices have doubled between December 2008 and the now times. But does that mammoth dip just before Obama took office look a little suspicious?

Obama took office just as the economy bottomed out, and just as gas prices hit their lowest point in several years. These two things are not a coincidence: when the economy struggles, demand for gasoline goes down, so gas prices drop. As the economy has recovered, demand has risen.

So to the extent that Obama can take credit for the economic recovery, he also shares the blame for rising gas prices. I guess Mitt's saying that Obama should have done right by American drivers by keeping the economy hobbled.

Mitt has to know this. He and his economic advisers can't be quite that ignorant, but I'm sure he can imagine that the voting public can be that ignorant.

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