President Obama would seem to be in line to have some credit pointed his way. Having been roundly criticized for the spike in gas prices earlier this year, you would think he would deserve the credit for their rapid falling. The Republican Party would argue otherwise. Republicans who incessantly criticized President Obama’s energy policies as being the causes of the price increases say he has absolutely nothing to do with their fall and deserves no credit.
Average prices of gasoline have fallen more than $.70 per gallon since the reached a high of $4.00 earlier this year. Yet Senator John Barraso who was one of the more vocal critics of Obama’s energy policies now just continues to criticize. When prices were rising he said,
“[Obama is] fully responsible for what the American public is paying for gasoline” and calling the administration’s energy policies “at best ineffective and at worst … contributing to the higher gas prices,”
Yet when the Huffington Post asked the Senator if he still held the President responsible now that the prices have fallen he said,
“People are still feeling pain at the pump and pain at the plug, and it’s a result of the administration policies,”
In February, on of President Obama’s chief antagonists, Representative Allen West said on his Facebook
“People have asked me before is there any area where I could praise President Obama? Certainly, he has an impeccable penchant for understanding the power of the bully pulpit. President Obama is also very adept at promulgating deceptive language masquerading as policy, actually just insidious political gimmickry. This “tax policy” is an example as well as today’s speech on his “energy policy” shall be. Here is the bottom line, last night it took 70 dollars to fill the tank of my 2008 H3 Hummer, what is it costing you? What does it cost the President to fill his gas tank?”
West also was not willing to give President Obama credit for the price fall. He said,
“If you’re the chief executive officer of the United States of America, you should take responsibility for anything that’s occurring in this country, and you should not want to seek to get praise. This is what the military taught me: Leaders don’t take credit, leaders take responsibility.
