Bush's broken promises on gasoline prices

Back in mid-2000, one of the Bush pitches for electing him was that his swell relationship with the Saudis would put him in a singularly influential position to reduce gasoline prices.

"I would work with our friends in OPEC to convince them to open up the spigot, to increase the supply," Mr. Bush, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, told reporters here today. "Use the capital that my administration will earn, with the Kuwaitis or the Saudis, and convince them to open up the spigot." Link

"It's a strong and important friendship." (White House Photo)

Yet, as reported by the Center for American Progress in June 2004,

[W]hen Saudi Arabia led the fight within OPEC last month to cut production and raise prices, the president "refused to lean on the oil cartel" [citing the Miami Herald] and refused to even "personally lobby OPEC leaders to change their minds."

And when Bush ran for re-election, it was truly "fool me twice, shame on me": In April of 2004, as Bloomberg News reported:

Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the U.S. has promised President George W. Bush the Saudis will reduce oil prices before this November's election to help the U.S. economy, according to Bob Woodward, author of a new book about the Iraq war.

Oil prices are "high, and they could go down very quickly," Woodward said last night in an interview on CBS's "60 Minutes.''

"That's the Saudi pledge,'' said Woodward. "Certainly over the summer or as we get closer to the election they could increase production several million barrels a day and the price would drop significantly.''

And finally, for those who appreciate irony, consider this: In October of 2000, as reported on CNN's allpolitics.com, Al Gore "proposed that the U.S. control rising oil prices by tapping a small portion of the national Strategic Petroleum Reserve."

As soon as Gore came out for the oil release, Bush pounced on him for "playing politics." A Bush adviser calls Gore's position "manna from heaven" because it reinforces the claim that the Vice President will say and do anything to get elected. "The strategic reserve should not be used as an attempt to drive down oil prices right before an election," Bush said. "It should not be used for short-term political gain at the cost of long-term national security."