Careful What You Wish For, Michele!

Michelle Bachmann is at it again. By it, I mean using highly selective data points that eleminate vital context for political gain. The latest (at least that I've heard of) involves her proclamation that if she's President of the United States, we'll go back to having gas under $2/gallon. Because for lies to work, they have to have at least a superficial grounding in reality, Bachmann points out that average gas prices have nearly doubled from the $1.79 level at work when Barack Obama took office.

What she neglects to mention is that prices had actually been very close to current levels before Obama was elected and only came down as a result of the worldwide economic downturn. Putting aside the general lack of specifics about how her hypothetical administration would achieve this goal, the unavoidable truth at work here is that gas prices are driven largely by crude oil prices and those prices generally go down only when demand is lower as occurs during an economic slowdown.

Someone who's cynical about the notion of President Bachmann might observe that this means Bachmann is telling potential voters that if they make her President the economy will collapse, whichwould be a shocking bit of honesty from a presidential candidate of any major party. That is, of course, a cheap shot. I think I'll take it anyway.