June 6, 2009 - 13:21 ET
Virtually every time oil and gasoline prices rose when George W. Bush was in the White House, his policies and/or his connections to folks in the oil industry were blamed by newsrooms from coast to coast.
Yet, even though oil has doubled in price since Inauguration Day, with retail gas prices up $0.75 a gallon, you'd be hard-pressed to find reports blaming these spikes on President Obama or anything he's done since taking office.
Why?
Before you answer, take a look at the following crude oil chart:
On January 19, crude was $34.78. On Friday, it closed at $68.44, a virtual doubling in only four and a half months.
Although oil prices certainly rose during the Bush years, there was never such a fast doubling as what we've seen since Inauguration Day.
As for prices at the pump, the national average was $1.85/gallon on January 19. Today's average is $2.60.
But that doesn't tell the entire story, for the wholesale gas price was about $1.10 before Inauguration Day. With its $1.95 close on Friday, Americans could be seeing $3 at the pump soon; we in California already are.
With this in mind, given the constant lambasting Bush used to get concerning rising energy prices, will Obama and his policies be similarly blamed?
Or will this be another thing the Obama-loving press gives him a pass for?
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