It's Apparent We Have a Gas Issue

I had a dream not so long ago. The only thing I remember from that dream is that I passed a gas station and gas was $1.76 a gallon.

No, I'm not making that up. You know it's getting bad when you literally dream of low gas prices.

However, for most of the country, our dreams are coming true lately. The price of gas has slipped from a budget-crunching $3.00-plus a gallon down to an average of around $2.20 nationwide. There are valid reasons for this drop in prices; however, once again Democrats are trying to turn this economic positive into a negative by spreading this rumor: the prices are dropping because the election is coming up and the oil companies want you to vote Republican.

See, Democrats are quite good at spreading the "big lie", because so many of their followers don't bother to read the newspaper, or they don't read past the front page or first two paragraphs of a news story. Therefore, they can just plant the "big lie" in the head of a liberal columnist or cartoonist and then people start talking about it. Next thing you know, you're seeing letters to the editor repeating the "big lie" like it was gospel. Then, all a Democrat needs to do is come right out and say it, and bingo, he has instant support from voters. All the while, this "big lie" is just that... a lie.

As I said, there are valid reasons for this drop in gas prices. First off, the price of gas is driven by the price of oil. Gas prices were around $3.00 a gallon last summer when the price of a barrel of light, sweet crude was as high as $75 a barrel. Incidentally... who decides if oil is "light and sweet", through some sort of taste test? I'd hate to have that job... Anyway, oil prices are now settling around $56-$59 a barrel, still much higher than they were 18 months ago but worthy of a sigh of relief. This is due to the fact that the refineries damaged by Hurricane Katrina are coming back online, oil reserves are up, and the Miami Hurricanes football team packed more punch than this year's hurricane season.

Also, things are a little more stable in the Middle East than they were back in the summer, and oil speculators often run up the price of oil based on world events (which incidentally, I think should be illegal). If things were to suddenly improve in Iraq or we were able to talk Iran out of their nuclear program (both unlikely), the price of oil would probably drop farther. However, things are going well enough that OPEC met recently and chose to cut production and it didn't cause prices to jump at all. Incidentally, I would bet that most OPEC ministers couldn't care less about the political climate in our country.

Another factor is seasonal changes. People drive more during the summer because they're taking long trips and vacations, so since demand is up, the price goes up. Come fall and winter, people drive less due to the cold weather, so demand is down and gas prices drop. Economics 101. This is a course most Democrats apparently flunked back in school. This would also fly in the face of the corollary "big lie" being spread around... when the election is over, gas prices will jump back up. Not likely, unless a major world event starts oil speculators going nuts again.

However, Democrats have to politicize everything, don't ya know, so this cannot simply be a reflection of market forces. I was debating this whole situation at work the other day with a co-worker whose political bent is pretty much opposite with mine on a lot of things, and he replied, "Yes, but you're an intellectual so you get that." The point is most don't, and this is another sign that the Democrats are nothing more than the party of the ignorant.