Some Americans are suspicious that recent steep declines in gasoline prices might be the result of political manipulation, since the savings at the pump come just weeks before critical mid-term US elections.
Earlier this year, news of record oil profits led many US consumers to believe that energy companies had deliberately kept prices artificially high to improve their bottom line.
Now gas prices have fallen for several consecutive weeks, and recent polls show that consumers have a new suspicion -- that the price break is meant to give a boost to US President George W. Bush and a Republican Congress which has fallen out of favor with voters.
PHOTO: AFP
A Gallup poll last week found that two in five respondents believe administration has deliberately manipulated gas prices to coincide with the fall campaign season.
White House spokesman Tony Snow addressed -- and summarily dismissed -- the speculation at a press briefing earlier this week.
"I have been amused by ... the attempt by some people to say that the president has been rigging gas prices, which would give him the kind of magisterial clout unknown to any other human being," he told reporters.
"It also raises the question, if we're dropping gas prices now, why on earth did we raise them to US$3.50 [a gallon] before?" he said.
Manipulated or not, many observers agree that the falling prices at the gas pump have lifted Bush's sagging poll numbers.
"It pumps up presidential popularity," said Larry Sabato, a political analyst at the University of Virginia.
And while many experts believe that the recent rebound enjoyed by Bush in the polls is a result of a new thrust on security, others say it is mostly about the newly discounted gas.
"I see a near-perfect correlation between Bush's rise in the polls and the decline in gas prices," Sabato said.
"I think for most people it's a lot more important than the global war on terror," he said. "People tank up twice a week. They feel it in their pocket book."
It does seem clear US consumers are in a more upbeat mood as gas prices continue to decline. House Speaker Dennis Hastert crowed on Tuesday after economic data showed consumer confidence rising.
"The economy continues to grow to record levels, and the American people are more convinced now as they feel relief at the pump and have more money in their pockets," he said.
And while the Nov. 7 midterm elections portend a shakeup of the political establishment, American voters historically are less eager for political change if they can fill their cars' gas tanks on the cheap.
Hastert said the improving economy gave voters reason to return Republican lawmakers to Congress, rather than defecting to opposition Democrats, whom many political observers believe are poised to take control of the House of Representatives.
Pundits said that far from being the result of a Republican plot, the cheap gas can be explained by end of the summer driving season, a mild Atlantic hurricane season, healthy US energy stockpiles and lessening tensions over the Iranian nuclear crisis.
The average price of gasoline nationwide is now US$2.38 per gallon (3.8 liters), the lowest since March. Oil prices, meanwhile, have fallen by more than 20 percent since July, when prices topped US$78 a barrel.
The Automobile Association of America, said a gallon of gas one year ago cost US$2.80, while in early September last year, average gas prices were US$3.06 per gallon.
US President George W. Bush seems to be a major beneficiary of the lighter public mood -- whether or not cheaper gas is the cause.
In a Los Angeles Times poll last week, his approval rating rose from 41 percent in late June to 44 percent.
Conversely, some of Bush's worst numbers came in May and June, hovering in the low 30s -- when gas prices were peaking.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
RSS