Drudge Report of June 2000 Shows Bush Blaming Clinton for High Oil Prices: $20 - $30 a Barrel!

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White

On June 21, 2000, the main headline on Drudge Report shouted that Bush was blaming Clinton and Gore for "high" gasoline/oil prices.

And that, to reiterate, was the year 2000:

In the first half of 2000, gas prices were in the news. Everyone was upset, as oil had been around $10 a barrel the previous year. That spring, the price more than doubled, and it was an election year. So the blame had to go somewhere.

Vice President and Democratic nominee Al Gore blamed oil companies. Texas Governor and Republican nominee George W. Bush blamed President Bill Clinton.

Now that Exxon-Mobil posted record-high earnings, oil is nearing $140 a barrel, and Bush has been in the White House long enough to have affected energy policy, it's no shock that the president's blame game has shifted. So Bush blamed Clinton for gas prices doubling, while prices have increased to record levels under his administration. Bush himself admits that oil prices under his administration have gone up seven-fold!

At an energy summit last weekend in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, there was a fundamental disagreement about the source of high energy prices between producer countries and consumer countries. Producers blame market speculators for driving up prices, while consumers say there just isn't enough oil to meet global demand.

At the summit, Saudi Arabia pledged to increase their oil production by 200,000 barrels a day. But because the market (read: speculators) had already anticipated the Saudi promise, the price of oil actually went up after the announcement instead of down.

The top oil consumer in the world said it was a supply issue. U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman told summit attendees there is no evidence that speculators are driving up the price of oil. Instead, an increase in demand from developing countries such as India and China is to blame.

Dream on, Bush Administration. This record-shattering increase in oil prices occurred under your watch. Yet, in 2000 Bush blamed Clinton for the most relatively mild of oil price increases in comparison to the skyscraper gouging of the Bush years.

Meanwhile, Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and John Kerry (D-MA) announced a letter they sent to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice imploring her to reconsider no-bid oil contracts in Iraq to be issued to companies such as Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, and BP.

To give a little perspective, today's Drudge Report page features another oil news item:

"Oil Prices Won't Come Down" tells the story of OPEC President Chakib Khelil telling EU Energy officials that the oil cartel has done everything it can to bring the price of oil down. Basically, what he's saying is: "Don't blame OPEC."

So who's to blame?

Sen. Barack Obama should do what Bush did in 2000. Bring it on home. Bush said oil prices would fall in his administration, yet they have hit the stratosphere with record profits for the oil companies.

It hasn't been about lowering oil prices as a mark of success for Bush and Cheney; it's about seeing prices go up and up and up, because their buds and campaign contributors in the oil industry reap the profits, literally.

So look back at that Drudge (as in Sludge) Report headline from June of 2000 and weep. Bush has failed all of us, but he is the toast of the town as far as Big Oil is concerned, still protecting their right to gouge us and profiteer away, as we suffer at the pump.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

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