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Gas Prices Taking Priority in Campaign
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| Contributor | Gerald Farinas |
| Last Edited | Gerald Farinas Mar 24, 2004 02:44pm |
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| Category | News |
| Media | News Service - Associated Press |
| News Date | Wednesday, March 24, 2004 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Gas Prices Taking Priority in Campaign
The Honolulu Advertiser
It's the presidential campaign season, gasoline prices are climbing, and the challenger is demanding that the president get more oil on the market and stop foreign suppliers from "holding our nation and our consumers hostage." So it went in 2000, with the Republican challenger George W. Bush accusing a Democratic administration of failing Americans by letting prices go so high. Today, not much has changed - except Bush is president and prices are higher still.
Already, the debate is forming in this year's presidential contest, with Democrats in Congress testing themes John Kerry can use against Bush, and Republicans reminding voters that Kerry backed a 4.3-cent increase in the gas tax in 1993 and spoke in support of a 50-cent tax increase on a gallon a year later. This time, prices have climbed on Bush's watch and his words against President Clinton and Al Gore from 2000 hang out there to be used, in turn, against him: "What I think the president ought to do," Bush said then, "is he ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say, 'We expect you to open your spigots.'"
Kerry is mining a similar vein. He said Bush and Dick Cheney "campaigned promising to make energy a centerpiece of their administration's agenda," only to see record industry profits and prices. Gas prices are about 8 cents higher than their peak in 2000. |
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