Is it small and mean to be secretly hoping for a Bachmann presidency (answer below)?
Michele Bachmann Friday defended her campaign promise made earlier in the week that the price of gasoline will drop back down below $2 a gallon when she is in the White House. The Minnesota congresswoman and Republican presidential candidate pledged to utilize the nation's vast, untapped resources to bring down high energy prices and "create millions of high-paying jobs instantly." ...
"Under President Bachmann you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again," she said. "That will happen."
Oil experts expressed grave doubts that the kind of policies Bachmann espouses would produce the abundance of energy and low prices she envisions. Many of the factors affecting the price of oil in world markets are beyond the control of any President they say. In an interview with the Cable News Network's CNN Money, on Thursday, Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, said the price of gasoline when Obama came into office was largely the result of a severe economic contraction.
"That was in the 4th inning of the greatest recession of our lifetime," said Kloza said. During recessions demand for gasoline drops as businesses suffer a drop in sales or, in some cases shut down. Trucks are taken off the road, companies cut back on travel, and laid off workers drive fewer miles. The economy, though still weak, has recovered somewhat since early 2009, Kloza said, and demand for oil has increased in the U.S. and has risen sharply in developing countries like China, India and nations in South America.
"We're going to have to recognize the rest of the world has this increasing appetite for oil," he said. "If we go below $2 a gallon, it probably means there has been a lot of wealth loss and we are in a deflationary period." Lower gas prices, however desirable they might seem, would not be accompanied by good economic news, Kloza said.
Yes, it is small and mean to be hoping for something that economically catastrophic. From way back in 2008:
... the impact on gasoline prices of full speed ahead drilling is likely to be very small -- anywhere from nil to a 3% decrease in prices.
Can you imagine an administration trying to push gas prices down like that? And a Tea Party signed pledge to do so?
*Title courtesy of Wayne's World.