McCain: Give Bush credit for oil price drop
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/07/19/art.mccainsat.ap.jpg caption="McCain said Pres. Bush deserves more credit for oil price drop Wednesday."]
(CNN) - John McCain — whose campaign launched an ad this week blaming Barack Obama for high prices at the pump — said Wednesday President Bush's new push for offshore oil drilling deserves the credit for the recent drop in crude oil prices.
"In case you missed it, soon as the President announced that we were going to end the moratorium on offshore drilling the price of a barrel of oil went down $10," the presumptive Republican nominee said at a Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania town hall.
Crude oil prices are down about $20 a barrel from their record-setting intra-day high of $147.27 a barrel back on July 11.
President Bush announced on July 14 he was lifting executive ban on offshore drilling, although Congress has yet to act on his call to lift its own drilling ban.
Asked about McCain's comments today, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino replied, "I don't know that we fully deserve the credit, but I do think in was important to send a signal to the market that we are serious about moving forward."
Earlier this week, McCain's campaign released a new television spot blaming Barack Obama's opposition to offshore drilling for the nation’s rising gas prices.
For more on McCain's town hall event, tune into Campbell Brown: Election Center tonight at 8 pm ET.
Really? So when the oil price changes again, up or down, what will be the cause then? Maybe we could thank the pedestrian-predator Novak for his efforts to reduce oil prices. Or maybe if the price goes up, we could blame all the democratic fans at the next Mets game?
Jesus, worse than the lunacy to say these things, are those that believe them!
Before they start drilling off our shores for more oil we won't see for twenty years and shouldn't need by then, they should force the oil companies to drill on all the untapped land they have already.
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John McCain is out there every day, saying the answer is drilling, drilling, drilling and nuclear. He wants us to move from heroin to cocaine. Pretty soon it's not going to be oil corporations looking for drilling land, it's going to be nuclear corporations looking for dumping land.
Offshore drilling is an incredible blow the environment. One with no net benefit, except to those for whom the environment is, irrationally, an enemy.
Or give credit where it's due – lowered demand (use) caused by the high prices. Add to that the fact that China just started odd-even driving days and decreased their subsidy of gas prices and you've got a recipe for reduced prices.
Also, the lack of new issues with Iran. Oil had already started a sharp decline right before Iran started blasting off missiles, which caused it to resurge up to the 7/11 high of $147.
Lastly, no sensible investor really thinks that Bush's removal of the moratorium means that we're going to start drilling, so there would be no reaction. Investors have read the writing on the wall that it's not happening with a Democratic Congress and a probable Obama Presidency.
McCain's got a real problem with cause and effect when it comes to energy & economic policy.
IS THIS A JOKE, HOW ABOUT GIVE CREDIT TO THE SENATE FOR IVESTIGATING IT AND HAVING THEM RUN FOR THE HILLS BEFORE THERE ALL HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR PRICE FIXING AND GUOGING!!
If that was all it took, then why wasn't it done sooner? This is propoganda at its worst. Just like I don't blame one person or entity for the problem, I don't give credit to one person.
Obama '08
He is kidding right? Do you think McLame sine the demand has gone down since people cannot afford the prices could have anything to do with it? Another senior moment from the great Republican Propaganda machine!
Enlightened voter, please feel free to drill in your own back yard.... And congress tried to get the oil companies to drill on the land they are already leasing..
Why not go there first, then worry about destroying our beaches later ??
but they havent started yet. so the speculators are malipulating the market. impeach the oil man
Who are you kidding, McBush?
PSS How many Obama-payrollees can one comment-site post?
Everyone was saying it was becasue of talks with Iran....so which one is it?
Bush got us up there in the first place.
Now, Mcain proposed to continue the same, or in the path of Bush.
Every time they say war or bombs Iran the price go up.
Thing will get worse if Mcain if ever elected.
Obama 08 & 12.
All this talk of offshore drilling having any effect on prices within less than 7-10 years is remarkably ignorant. Even if the highest estimates of the the total oil reserve are correct, it would mean we'd have three years free of imported oil and then it's gone for another few million years. That's at today's consumption levels. Oil is a world commodity and, as long as we drive China's and India's economies with outsourcing, our production won't have a big impact. How about we find alternative energies to offset petrolium consumption rather than just drive up demand again? Oh right, the oil lobby and their billions have already bought the government. When are they going to have a fire sale for the rest of us?
No John we didn't miss it , gas is still over $4 a gallon, a $10 drop means nothing. I doubt anyone in Jordan is running scared that we are going to drill off shore for oil we cannot fully refine, nor will the American public see any benefits of drilling for 10 years. All talk no action. Unless we adopt the Boone plan OPEC is the only game in town and they know it. With winter coming in a few months that cheap oil from Venezuela will look real good. Also hurricane season has just begun will those oil platform be safe from mother nature?
Whew!......about time McCain begin talking ECONOMY. Stop making the case on Iraq. It's over. Economy all the way. We got your back on his return with his facts.
Im confuse the gas price have to reach a record high price for bush to bring it down and we should be thankfull for paying the high price the whole time?simply ridiculous
McCain is right, oil prices will go down b/c we might have the possibility of getting oil from ANWR in 10 years..
\end sarcasm
I would give George Bush and his Oil Mafia for jacking up the gas prices from $2 to over $4.
The only credit Bush can get is when he leave office. I will give him credit for that if he goes peacefully.
If we're to give credit to Bush for the oil price drop, then why hasn't he done this Months ago??? and why aren't the prices even lower???
McCain needs to wire his mouth shut because the stupid oil keeps gushing out.
people people people all we can really do is laugh at this. This is incredible
Thank Bush?! The reason the price of a barrel of oil has gone down is because consumption worldwide is down, as well as here in the US.
Demand goes down, price falls. Simple economics– apparantly McCain can't wrap his head around it.
Negotiating with Iran, thereby calming middle east tensions which was what Barack Obama had been suggesting for a long time probably had more to do with it. Speculators at least can see that as a more tangible effort, in that the bush administration can actually follow through with Iran negotiations but it does not have the power to lift the oil drilling ban as congress has to do the same (and likely won't because Congress is controlled by democrats.
Just a thought.
Such utter nonsense, and simply impossible, if you understand the basic facts of the commodities market: the thing being bought and sold is the right to take delivery of X amount of oil Y months from now.
The President announcing a lifting of a drilling ban that (a) isn't even effective unless and until Congress does the same AND (MORE IMPORTANTLY) (b) won't result in any increased supply for (at most optimistic) 7 or more years, and probably much longer (if at all), simply CANNOT affect the price of short-term oil futures being traded on the commodities market.