This is from a 2000 Salon article. I imagine since the media allowed Bush to demagogue the issue in the last election, precedent will require them to do the same this time around.
http://dir.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/06/23/oil/index.htmlBush and big oil
Did George W. Bush get it wrong when he blamed high gas prices on OPEC?By Anthony York
- - - - - - - - - -
June 23, 2000 | Both Al Gore and George W. Bush are pointing fingers at each other, blaming the other, or his political allies, for the price of super-unleaded gasoline hitting $2.50 per gallon in Chicago. Gore has attacked the oil companies and, naturally, gone out of his way to point out that Bush is a former oilman who is kowtowing to his buddies in the oil industry.
"He's doing everything he can to take the heat off his close friends in the oil industry," said Gore spokesman Doug Hattaway. "He's a Texas oil man through and through and is joined at the hip with big oil."
Bush and other Republicans, meanwhile, are blaming Gore, OPEC and environmentalists. Specifically, Bush blames Gore and the Clinton administration for mishandling OPEC, which controls the majority of the world's oil supply. OPEC sets limits on how much oil it will produce, which affects the price of oil worldwide.
Bush says that the Clinton administration should be cashing in chits the United States earned during the Gulf War to convince our oil-producing allies like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to advocate for higher OPEC thresholds."The administration should be working to get our friends in OPEC to increase their oil production," Bush said Wednesday. "That's what diplomacy is all about. It's called earning capital in the foreign arena."
But Thursday, for the second time in three months, our buddies in the Middle East did just that. OPEC agreed to boost output by 708,000 barrels a day.
more...
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
