President Obama, Political Dishonesty/Opportunism and the Strategic Oil Reserve

Stories are again out there is th elast two days that the Obama Administration is "lookng into" the release of oil from the Strategic Oil Reserve, after a "tgrial run" last summer.


Is the price of oil especially high?  Nope.  Today, the price (for U.S. "light, sweet crude" ) was a little over $96 dollars a barrel. The "record", during the Bush Administratin, was $145 dollars a barel (brief spike).. It is true that Bush was so CLUELESS (as this blg stated at the time, in an article or two or three) as to be PURCASING oil for the Strategic Oil Reserve as the price of ol went to $110, $120, and then $140 (briefly). This was bone-deep STUPID on the part of Bush, but that is true of a lot of what he did and said. Notice I did not go with thte leftist absurdity that Bush was a stupid man: only with my 2006 conclusion that Bush did, and was doihng, too many STUPID things for me not to disown him. But even Bush was not so stupid as to OBVIUSLY "use" the Strategic Oil Reserve for POILITICAL ADVANTAGE.  Obama is both more stupid and more disyhonest than President Bush (in tghe midst of Bus's Third Term, only worse).


Note that the price of a barrel of oil "peaked" this spring at a price of around $105 a barrel.  But Obama did not act THEN. Instead, on the verge of an electin, the subject is being raised. This, ALONE, should cost Obama the election (even if I still canot support Romney).


What does my cynical brother say, who used ot OWN a trucking comapany, and now works for one in a high position?  (Is it not amazing how many peole are MORFE cynical them I am, even though I thought I was as clynical as a person can get.) . My borther said, AFTER the Obama release last summe from the Strategic Oil Reserve FAILED to have any effect on price, that what Obama was really doing was conducting a "trial run" for the electin to TEST (last summer) the political gain that he could get out of a pre-election release form the Strategic Oil Reserve. Am I sayhing that Obama would SACRIFICE the security of this country (purpose of the oil reserve) for POLITICAL GAIN?  Se, I knew yu were not realy stupid.  That is exactly wha I am saying.  My borther--and I had not really tougt of it--said that Obama was tryhing to find out what kid of TIMING he needed to get a p9litcal gain out of an electin year release of oil for the reserve. 


My brother appears to have been RIGHT.  What could Obama conclude from his TEST last summer that would HELP him get elected (the whole purpose of the test, according to my brother)?  What Obama could conclude was that some sort of "moderate" release from the oil reserve would have NO real effect on the price of oil.  "But, Skip, you just contgradicted yourself.  Doesn't Obama have to give up on tghe idea after the TEST last sumemr?"  Ah,. I see yu still havve some things to learn, even if you are not totally stupid.  The TEST, really in the spring and very EARlY summmer of last year of last year, showed that Obama could NOT realy control the price of oil and gasoline, and that acting in the spring and early summer would do him NO GOOD.


But what if Obama acts LATE.  In other words, what if Obama acts rally CLOSE to the electin (and we are only 80 days out now) . Will Obama not get credit for TRYING: for doing SOMETHING?  Gasoline is heading back toward $4.000 a gallon.  That is because we are in a situation whhere Obama and Bernanke have made a real reocvery IMPOSSIBLE.  Let even the most mnor signs of a recovery appear, and OIL LPRICES BEGIN TO EXPLODE.  Already, they have not dropped nearly as much as they should have because of the STEALTH INFLATILN caused by Baiout Ben Bernanke and Barack Obama.  Now we also have exploding FOOD PRICEWS, caused by the OBAMA policy of using FOOD for FUEL (GOP shares blame on this one).  How can we POSSIBLY "recover", when every attempt at recovery is SHUT DOWN by an immediate rise in prices.  Anything approaching a real recovery would bring back the Wwimar Republi c and HYPERINFLATIN.  But thibngs work so much FASTER now. The beginning of hyperinflatin, unlike twtiht the Weimar Republic, creats an almost IMMEDIATE SHUT DOWN of the econmy.  That is realy the situatin we have been in since 2009. 


But look at what hapens if Obama releases oil from the reserve in, say, September and October.  It will have NO effect on prices, especially iover any length of time.  That is what Obama's TEST last summer taugth him.  However, Obama will NOT be--as usual--tyring to actually accomplish anything substantive.  Obama is all about IMAGE, and he is aiming for the IMAGE of a man who will ACTG.  Obama does not WANT the results to be determinable before the electin.  He wants the actual results to be evident only AFTER the electin , which is Obama's policy on EVERyTHING (think ObamaCare).


However.  Are the Amercan peole really THIS stuid?  Even Obama has to be careful here. Is this ploy not ToO OBVIUS?  I think it is.  You can have an IQ of 60 and still see what Obaa is tyring to do, if he releases oil forrm the reserve just before the electin  Is it not clear that Obama will then be exosed as jsut a dishonest OPPORTUNIST, willing to put the security of this country at risk for his own poitical advantage?  I think so.


You will remember that this blog, this spring, proposed soemthing that is a variatoin of my advice to President Bush that only a STuPID man woululd continue to purchase oil for the reesrve at AnY PRICE.  My prooosal was NOT a plan to control prices (impossible) or otherwise "control" the oil market.  My paln was an attempt to BUILD tghe "strategic reserve" at the LOWEST NET RICE for the taxpayer.  Thus, what I proposed was that we SELL oil (gradually and AUTOMATICALY) from the oil reserve whenever oil can be sold at $105 dollars a barrel or more (or whateverr we determine is a god upper price), and that we then BUY oil for the reserve when it can be done below $80 a barrel (or whatever is seen as an advantabous price).  This attempt to REDUCE taxpayer average cost would be strictly limited to, say, 10% of the reserve.  As staed, this would NOT be an attempt to manipulate price, although it would have the desirable effect of putting a check on WILD "speculation".  This would be a rational policy to ADD to the reserve, at lower prices, and at least rEUDUCE the net taxpayer cost of the reserve.    Might now work, although it certainly WOULD have worked as oil spiked to $145 dollars a barrel, and then fell to $35 dollars a barrel (depths of recessin).  Worth a try, as there is little to lose if the "playig around' is strictlly limited to 10% of the reserve (but using ALL of the money from sales to ADD to the reserve atg a LOWEER price).  Note that MY proposal would be AUTOMATIC, with NO political component. 


In contrast, Obama is ALL abut political oportunism.  The man is the most dishonest man to ever be President of the United Sates. 


P.S. No proofreading or spell cehcking (bad eyesight). I have to admti I am disturbed here.  No, I am not disturbed about my correct analysis of Obama.   I am disturbed that my brother MAY actuallyl be considerably more cynical than I am.  I have begun to get this distrubing feeling for somme time now, and it is now really beginning to bother me.  Even Sylvia, y Obama supporting female friend, has shown signs of being MORE CYNICAL than I am.  Am I a "closet romantic optimist", jsut as I have been fORCED out of t he closet as a FMINST?  I hope not . My very IDENTITY cannot take these shocks to my self-image.