Gas prices are rising. And the President’s numbers on how he’s handling the crisis are falling. America doesn’t think that Obama knows what to do, much less is willing to do anything about it.
And now that the President is looking at an election just 8 months from now, his views and policies on the subject are fluid. Whereas before he was FOR rising prices:
The drop in oil prices, I do think, makes the conversation about energy more difficult, not less necessary. More than ever, I think, a wholesale investment in transforming our economy — from retrofitting buildings so that they’re energy-efficient to changing our transportation patterns and thinking about how to rebuild our electricity grid — those are all things that we’re going to need now more than ever. But with people not paying $4 a gallon for gas, it means it drops on their priority list. And that makes the politics of it tougher than it might have been six months ago.
Predictably the President feels he’s better situated to affect the transition from fossil fuels to renewable fuels from the White House. So, he sees a short term lie pivot as justifiable to the larger picture. In fact, you can see the same attitude from the administration’s energy secretary. Before prices were going up, he was FOR those prices going up. Now that it could jeopardize his job, he’s way in favor of those prices falling.
But is he?