President Barack Obama campaigned on energy issues on Wednesday, visiting a handful of oil wellheads on Federal land in New Mexico and a solar installation in Boulder City, Nevada.
The subtext of this Obama campaign is public unhappiness with the
price of gasoline and the hypocritical attacks on him over this issue by
his Republican opponents. The fact is that there is only one thing
Obama could have done to bring down oil prices, and that would have been
to veto the National Defense Authorization Act until Congress took back
out the provisions for crippling sanctions on Iran. Republicans back
these sanctions to the hilt, which is why it is dishonest of them to
attack Obama on high gas prices.
Juan Cole at
Informed Comment.