The NYT Criticizes Kerry and Dems for Gasoline Hysteria
Anyone getting hysterical about gas prices should read this editorial in the New York Times. The price of gas is one of those kitchen table issues that everyone understands. It is also one that Bush may be able to neutralize if prices don’t go down before the election. Even the NYT is on Bush’s side on this one.
With the election season moving into full swing as Americans start thinking about their summer travel plans, it’s sadly predictable that politicians will try to curry favor with voters by playing silly blame games and proposing simplistic quick fixes for rising gasoline prices, which are averaging more than $2 a gallon. A case in point is the demand made yesterday by 20 Senate Democrats that the government release as much as 60 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the next two months.President Bush is rightly resisting the call. Since 9/11, the administration has been adding to the reserve in a disciplined manner, and it is closing in on its goal of filling up the reserve’s capacity, 700 million barrels. Tapping the reserve to assuage motorists at a time of increasing security threats to already tight fuel supplies would be foolish.
The piece goes on to talk about the different factors contributing to the higher prices such as increased demand from China and puts the current prices into historical perspective. The NYT editorial isn’t particularly bothered by the higher prices: “If $2-per-gallon sticker shock slowed sales of Hummers — which get about 11 miles per gallon — that would hardly qualify as a national tragedy,” and I am sure if the issue hurt Bush at the polls they wouldn’t consider that a national tragedy, either. They do deserve credit, though, for calling Kerry and Senate Democrats to task on this issue and for putting forth a pretty fair assessment of the situation.
As I said above, I think Bush can neutralize this as an issue. He needs to talk about it and show concern for the effect of high prices on consumers, but at the same time he can point to Kerry’s opposition to drilling in ANWR, his reckless proposal to release the reserve, and his past support for gas taxes to show that Kerry wouldn’t be any better on this issue and is, in fact, trying to play politics with it.
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