NYC Letter: Left Hand/Right Hand Messaging -- The Price Of Gasoline

Day 1,144 of CHOPE

The Democrats never make bad policy. They just do bad messaging.

Right Hand.

So I’m going to keep doing everything I can to help you save money on gas, both right now and in the future.

Mr. Obama,
WEEKLY ADDRESS
PETERSBURG, Virginia
March 10, 2012 (White House)

Message: I feel your pain.

Left Hand.

CHU: DOE WORKING TO WEAN U.S. OFF OIL,
NOT LOWER PRICES
WASHINGTON February 28, 2012 (Politico)

Message: Feel your own pain.

Message dialectic: Pain.

Here is the handiwork of Mr. Obama "doing everything I can to help you save money on gas, both right now and in the future":

In 2008 Mr. Obama was voted into the White House along with larger Congressional Democrat majorities. When Mr. Obama was sworn in a gallon of gasoline was $1.89 (01/26/09). Under Mr. Obama's economic stewardship gas prices began climbing: $2.76, 01/20/10, +46% year-on-year increase; $3.163, 01/24/11, +15% YOY; $3.45, 01/23/12, +9% YOY. A gallon of gas currently is $3.652 (02/20/12) a 6% increase on last month. All in all gas prices have risen a whopping 193% since Mr. Obama took office. Now either Mr. Obama owns that or he and Nancy Pelosi were playing you for stupid in 2008. [Pause.] He does. And they were. [Sudden, painful insight.] And they still are!

... [S]ustained year-on-year increases in gas prices are not a spike. They are a trend, an unabated trend under Mr. Obama.

There is no green energy technology ready to go or in the wings that can supplant America's fossil fuel energy output. Not wind, not solar, not algae.* So Team Barry's pain at the pump is not a nudge to choose an equally abundant and affordable alternative. It is policy tough love for a fabulous green future that will always be an election cycle aware. [Pause.] Only Mr. Chu is naïf enough to admit to this.

CHOPE.

A green energy future forever in the future.

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* Algae, so promising not three weeks ago, gets no mention in Mr. Obama's recent weekly address.