Your opinion, please:

MSNBC is reporting that the price of a gallon of gas will likely be over $5 soon. Which political party will benefit from this?

When people are at the gas pump, will they be saying, "This is great! I want John McCain to win the election, so that we can have a third term of the Bush-Cheney administration!"

Or will they be thinking that it would be better to vote for the democratic ticket?

I am looking at my lawn through the windows, and find myself thinking that mowing lawns is going to be expensive this year. I have a rotary mower that my younger son enjoys using for a work-out. Guess he'll be in shape for boxing by fall!

"How the fuck am I going to get to work this morning?"

A lot of people have to drive quite a few miles back and forth to work.

I have been finding the prices at grocery stores depressing. I expect that they will continue to rise, as the price of gas increases.

And I'm really looking forward to heating my house when winter comes.

been allowed in this country.....hardly anyone lives close to their place of employment..so they have to drive further...cities are going to have to rethink their plans.

maybe the pukers a bit more, but I think there will be animosity towards all.

certainly holds influence over many democrats in Washington. But I think they are more closely associated with the republican party. Still, you are correct that the rising costs will cause the amount of resentment against all of Washington to increase.

;)


Hard to take seriously anyone who can't make the simple connection between Republicanism and regular people getting soaked by the already far-too-well-off. If Dems lose this election, it won't be because the people didn't want them to solve this problem and others but because the Republicans have done such an excellent job of fucking up the electoral machinery.

It provides us with an opportunity to make significant gains in congressional elections, as well as taking the White House.

Bush & Co are viewed as representing the oil industry. McCain has nestling with the administration, to gain conservatyive support. Those republicans running for re-election have some tough choices regarding if they embrace Bush-McCain this fall.

right now it could go either way, with the repukes doing a good job of wrongly pointing the finger at the Dems. Like most political issues, it's a about spin and actions taken.

It is not hard to imagine, for example, Dick Cheney having his puppets attack the democrats for rising gas prices. Strange, but true.

I will be thinking that Ronald "Fucking" Reagan sure fucked this country up, after Jimmy Carter tried to set us on a new course after the 1970 gas crisis. Lack of fore site has sunk the automakers and this country in their quest for the free market. Oh yes and thank you Bill "Keep it in your pants" Clinton for allowing the commodities market to be manipulated.

It brings back memories of Reagan and Bush the Elder.

people go to fill up their car, are they really going to be thinking: Man, I'm so upset about those delegates not being seated. Most people don't even understand what a delegate is.. they understand they can't afford to put gas in their car."

People in my neighborhood - we all have expansive lawns - have gone back to filling up our lawn tractors and mowing only every two weeks, so we can afford to drive our cars.

I never get gas or groceries without taking time to talk to other people about the increasing prices. People are unhappy. Older folks recognize what is happening to the economy.

The Dems may get elected into the mess but I don't feel they are going to be able to stop it. Whether it is a peak oil effect or an economic effect, I'm not sure but the only thing that will help is conservation. Demand destruction will come eventually when people can no longer afford to drive as much as they do now. Aside from the prospects of the masses revolting, the whole situation is a good thing that is forcing us to change our way of living.

By the way, there is already an email floating around about how all of this is because of the new Dems who've been in office in the last year! I don't think either party is going to benefit in the long run as long as people want to continue consuming as much as they do.

the democrats will not have any miracle cure. But I am focusing on who will benefit when people enter the voting booth in November. I think that the democratic party will be more likely to benefit, in large part because Bush and Cheney are closely associated with the oil industry.

prices, I'm thinking to fix this, WE NEED CHANGE.

That's just what I'm thinking. It's what other members (not all Democrats mind you) are thinking. We are thinking we need radical change.

Obama is the change candidate. McCain is not. McCain is trying very hard to paint himself as change, but I do not believe he can be successful doing it. That's where the heart of your question is: can McCain pull himself off as a candidate for change.

your answer already goes to the heart of what I have been planning to ask tomorrow. That confirms for me my suspicion that it is an important question.

Whisperings of "Windfall Profits Tax" on industry ---

A Hearing --- saw the CEO Chevron guy there ---

I don't think that we can count on the democratic "leadership" to ask the questions as frequently as they need to be asked. It will be up to people at the grass roots level to make sure the voting public connects the issues to Bush, Cheney & Co.

We need to take to the streets the way they do in France. Just shut the counrty down.

For a week or two weeks.

There is no real excuse for the jump in prices. Except for the "enron" style raison du jour
that the Oil COmpany Executives keep coming up with.

ELECTRIC CARS, NATIONALIZING OIL INDUSTRY ---

AND . . . I'M QUITE SURE THAT MANY ARE RETURNING TO MASS TRANSPORTATION ----

WHEN THEY CAN FIND IT!!!

Those are issues that need to be discussed, and are too often ignored or simply marginalized. e need to bring them to the table.

I always manage to let slip a FUCK BUSH BOMB while filling up. It never fails to get a laugh. This election is ours folks, if we can ever get focused on winning it.

I never buy a gallon of gas or milk without taking the opportunity to ask others, "What do you think of these prices?" As I'm sure you know, once the topic is raised, people love to give their opinion. That's an important part of spreading the word and increasing interest in the summer months, as the conventions approach.

We hear a lot of anger toward the oil companies, some toward Bush. I am also hearing fear in people's voices for the first time. Both my husband and I throw in a comment about how much time and money has been wasted on the Iraq War, how Bush and company have looked out for no one excerpt their corporate buddies in the oil industry and the defense industries and their wealthy campaign contributors.

The sad thing is that I don't see any short term solution. I think we are in for some tough times ahead, and I think it is important for whomever holds power to stop pandering to the American people and start an honest discussion about the work we have ahead. It's time to challenge the American people to be part of the solution rather than offer platitudes and phony quick fixes like a gas tax holiday and drilling in the ANWR. We all need to make efforts to conserve energy. We as a country need to invest in public transportation and alternative energy in an aggressive way. I think back to how the US rose to the challenge of conversion to a war economy during WW2. I think we need to convert to a non-oil economy as soon as possible.

You raise two very important points. The first is that we do best when we ask a question, and then allow people to talk. The average person on the street will, when you ask a couple of questions, be able to connect the war in Iraq and oil.

Second, you are absolutely right: there is no short term solution, or quick fix. The very best we can really anticipate is to slow our nation's movement from the wrong direction, and begin to move in the right direction. But it is a long-term set of problems we face. What we do this fall is just the beginning. But we can't begin with the next steps, until we take those first ones.

but that kind of metric is fickle and ripe for pandering to public demands for instant gratification (summer gas tax holiday, anyone?). Energy problems are global (just as, correspondingly, ecological problems are global), and North American prices have generally been far below those in e.g. Europe. North American efforts to increase fuel efficiency, to develop and use methods of alternate energy, etc., haven't been up to par with the world's leadering economies in these fields. This puts NA behind in one of the most important metrics of this period of history, and this will continue to effect our overall economy and will take time and determination to catch up. To say nothing of regaining a lead. IMO the biggest challenge to NA economy is to turn the US (because the US is 99% the determiner, here) away from an almost total dependence on military-industrial spending, which in turn is an almost total gov't subsidy for US industry. That kind of subsidy almost begs for waste, for turning a blind eye to the urgent demands of global competition - while begging for in effect a permanent state of war.

There are interests in the US that are not encouraging increased fuel efficiency, and alternative energy, etc. And you hit the nail on the head regarding the desire for instant gratification. And those are two of the major stumbling blocks that are in our path.

Thank you.

Many people blame the Dem Congress (they listen to rush) but I think they are slightly more angry at Bush.

Anyway you look at it, we the people are the big losers in all of this.

Right now I am trying to save up to have the fireplace in my unfinished basement checked out. I may have to use it come winter.

I have seedings growing in the kitchen and am going to tear up a chunk of yard for a garden this year, so more veggies and less grass to mow.

I was not a person who "stocked up" for the Y2K scare, but I am buying food in bulk, and am making use of the old pantry. I think we may face a cold spell in this country.

Perhaps there is hope for DU yet!

By default it should play to our sides advantage. The incumbent President's party being responsible for the state of the nation is the normal bottom line. And if anyone goes any deeper and actually thinks about it the logic is compelling that the Republicans will not be getting a bum rap if they are forced to shoulder most of the blame; due to both their energy and foreign policies.

But how the candidates seem to respond to the severe strain for many working Americans of it costing a fortune to fill the gas tank or even fly anywhere will be an important consideration. If they are making similar noises to the publics ear, Democrats come out on top.

But McCain could wrest an advantage out of it. I was in a very small minority on DU who gave some defense to Hillary Clinton's position regarding a Federal Gas Tax Holiday, and I made that case in this OP found in my Journal. I decided not to mince words and just called it:

In Defense of "Pandering"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5812972

My core point was that the entire controversy was over political messaging. I think both Obama and Clinton had good competing political messages. Obama's was that he was a serious guy who would not play politics and push for "quick fixes" that would not work. That is a profound message. Clinton's was that there are people out there who are already on the edge, who are losing their homes out from under them because they need to feed their kids and at the end of the month the money isn't left to pay all the mortgage. Some people have NO reserves, period . If they don't have the money in their wallet to put gas in the tank they can't get to work and they will lose their jobs and any ability to keep their homes. One Summer Fuel Tax holiday = One Tank of Gas = One Dozen commutes to work = not losing a job = keeping a home.

I supported Clinton on this because she coupled a tax break for consumers with a tax increase on Big Oil companies, so I could live with her mega message. I had no more problem with her campaigning on something that was beyond her power to deliver than I did when John Edwards campaigned on immediately pulling 50,000 troops out of Iraq.

The primary campaign debate over this is water under the bridge now as far as I'm concerned. What is relevant is whether or not John McCain manages to shift the political emphasis off of failed Republican policies and onto his feeling the pain of working Americans and his vowing to act immediately to give them whatever relief he can. That will be tough for him to do, but if he manages it then the debate will shift onto which candidate really gets how rough it is and who has a plan that can deliver some quick relief.

Obama either would then need to compete on plans or he will need to shoot holes in McCain's and pin the panderer tag on McCain and make it stick. McCain would try to pin the "out of touch with regular people's lives" tag on Obama and make it stick. The more pain more people are in the greater the chance McCain has to score some points with his strategy.

The delivery of the messages is key. We know that the republican party plays on fears, and the hatreds that result from fear. And that is really tough to deal with in this country. It has been at many times in the past, and will be in the fall. As we know, all tyrants throughout history have been aware that if you can scare a population, then make them hate a common "enemy," they usually will forget their own low level of being, and follow that "leader."

That said, if we want to institute real change, we must also change. We have to play a big role in helping deliver the democratic message. It is almost like being an interpreter for Obama, because in some areas of the country, people need to hear it from informed community members. I'm sometimes surprised how few people have actually either read Obama's two books, or the book about him. Those who are not familiar with the books are more likely to be fertile ground for the republican lies that are being planted.

that a lot of bitter clinging religious folks won't even be able to afford to drive to church, don't you? Cui bono?

:shrug:

the economy the way it is now, that the church my wife and daughters attend has had more of a demand for its food bank. I think that there will be more people, including the poor and elderly on fixed incomes, who will have problems paying their heating bills. So I hope that those people who I know who go to church will be able to afford not only the gas to get there, but also the gas to deliver much needed food to the rural poor. (I live in upstate NY, and I know that people are having a difficult time in our area.)

I meant that those "bitter clinging religious folks" - who are probably going to vote for McCain, anyway, are not going to like the price of gas, or the price of everything that is delivered by trucks, which is just about everything. If they were smart, they'd know that the Bush/Cheney "government" is to blame for their plight. If they were smart.

I meant no slight to anyone's religion, I was attempting to underscore the validity of the point Obama was making with his awkward reference to the book, "What's the Matter With Kansas?", by Thomas Frank.

I live in western PA, and things have been going downhill steadily here since Reagan was President of the Republican States of America - certainly without respite from Bill Clinton's NAFTA. There are plenty of those folks around here, too, who fail to vote their economic interests, too. And guess what? They've still got Roe v. Wade and gay marriage and all the rest of the "evils" they though they were getting rid of...

:hi:

It is a warm-up for tomorrow's question.

wondering why the Democrats have not been holding the republicans responsible for price gouging. Recently BBC reported that the top five oil companies made 126 billion dollars in profit last year. Exxon made 40.6 billion of that. I think the key word here is "profit" that would mean they made 126 billion dollars above and beyond operating cost...how is it that no one on either side of the isle has stepped forward and made an issue out of oil companies and their associates blatantly stealing from us? I am not talking about making a little noise but holding people responsible. Somehow our economy is staggering but these guys racked in 126 billion! Sorry for the communist perspective but doesn't heating fuel seem like it should be the right of every citizen in a civilized country? They don't provide us with proper medical coverage least they could do is make sure their labor force is warm in the winter.

A picture paints a thousand words. We have a number of those types of images that can be used creatively in the fall. "Mini" posters can be shared on DU, run off on any printer, and tacked/pasted up in numerous public places. Monkey warfare, we used to call it.

only to return home to reminisce about what it was like in the days "When We Had Cars."

he once used a tractor to do because of the high cost of gasoline.

JFK campaigning in 1960. He told about a farmer he met who said, "I hope I can break even this year. I really need the money."

of some sort PDQ. I don't think there's a solution as such, but we need to be able to point to something that's changed that's at least headed in the right direction within the first two years.

I was able to mow my front lawn in 5 minutes the other day. The back yard is a different story; it needs to be xeriscaped, too, because water is another precious resource.

What kind of rotary mower do you have? I've researched them online and so far there doesn't seem to be one which stands out from any of the others.

As for which ticket, Dem or Repub, people will blame whichever party fits into their perception of the world, and will vote accordingly. For example, Repubs might blame Dems for fighting ANWAR.

Very few Americans will blame themselves or their conspicuous consumerism.

There are still millions that think what is said on rightwing radio is real. I guess it depends on how many of them there are.

He's a contractor and it was his first week on the job. He said that one of his first acts, his first week, was to find a vehicle to replace his Ford Truck - something like a Smart Car or Prius. He was so mad at Bush and his buddies that he couldn't stop talking long enough for me to get a word in edge wise. He explained to me how much less expensive it would be per month for him to buy a new prius as opposed to keeping his Ford Truck and paying for gas. This was not the reason we were talking in the first place and it wasn't ME who brought all this up. I gave him no inkling that I was a raging liberal. In fact, he had to go quickly after his rant and I didn't get a chance to say anything yay or nay about his opinions.

I would have been more amused if our economy, country and the world were not in so much dire trouble because of people like him just now coming around to figuring it out about these criminals.

So, to cut to the chase - I think the Dems have the answer. I doubt very much if Republicans will vote for another Republican regime.

However, I do believe that some of our current elected officials will benefit. The first name that pops into my head is Chaney followed by Bush and Bush.

But the cost of oil/gas is not entirely Bush's fault. There is still the supply and demand factor, as well as the Iraq war to blame. China and the US are fighting over the worlds recourses.

The price of oil and gas is not the only thing on the rise. I work in the steel industry, and for the last twenty years or more the cost of raw steel was always about $0.20 to $0.25/lb. A few years ago it doubled in price in one week to a record $.50/lb. And now in the last few weeks it has gone up to over $0.75/lb. The reason is China. We will see a lot of steel fabricators go out of business this year becuase of this.

China has a booming economy and they need the steel, but they are also controlling and manipulating the market by buying up scrap steel, just as they manipulate their currency. We are in an economic war with China, and it is getting very scary. We are in dept to are eye balls with China, and I feel that our world will come crashing down soon.

I don't even think Obama or Hillary can save us now.

They'll wake up from their summer snooze in September, yawn, say "what? another election? Who's running this time?"

But yeah, it will be their gasoline and energy bills, not the seating of the Florida and Michigan delegations, that drive the election in the fall.

What else is new? :eyes: Who'll order the invasion of Venezuela first?

In the short term, I think gasoline will reach about $5/gallon by the end of summer BUT it will come DOWN in September and October ... and take some pressure off the GOP. That's how it works.

The fact is that we're still paying less than the Europeans. The fact is that the corporatists would rather move their capital offshore than re-tool and compete for the fuel-efficient market that's mostly controlled by the Japanese.

Democrats will benefit and we need to grill oil co. execs with hearings, late Summer early fall to be certain of that.

:hi:

I have to remind them that around 50% of America thought it was a good idea for an oil family to run the country, with a VP who also benefits from the oil companies, and a SOS who had an oil tanker named after her by Chevron.

Repukes hate hearing that...especially my father in law....so I rub the salt in every chance I get...we all should keep reminding them...

The rest of us can just eat their dust. I wonder at what point will the price of oil cause a massive gridlock of inflation that no one can afford? $7/gallon? $8/gallon?
McCrusty-Bush WWIII would absolutely assure our demise, which is why it absolutely cannot be an option.
Corporate party members=War Profiteers
Isn't war profiteering still illegal, technically? What if they were sued for all that stolen money, our country sure could use the cash right about now. Pisses me off they get to laugh all the way to the bank.