Biden's Chief of Staff, and the Acting Shadow President, Ron Klain is Obsessed With High Gas Prices.
But He Has a Plan For Dealing With Them.

Klain didn't care about gas prices before they started really hurting Democrats' poll numbers. In fact, Democrats celebrated high fuel prices as a necessary part of their Incredible Transition.

But now Klain's worried about them. Not because it hurts American citizens, but because it hurts anti-American Democrats.

For the past several months, a White House-led team of economic specialists has marked each day in the same way: With a painstaking, state-by-state examination of gasoline prices and the intricate market forces pushing them relentlessly upward.

Senior officials and others close to President Joe Biden view those prices as the cost that most directly affects voters' everyday lives, and therefore their perception of the economy as well. As such, Biden and his top advisers fixate on them with an intensity that some aides describe as obsessive. White House chief of staff Ron Klain has grown particularly absorbed by the issue, checking the average price of a gallon of gas every morning. He's lamented that it's the one item everyone knows the cost of because gas station billboards are so ubiquitous throughout the country.

"Could they advertise anything else?" Klain rhetorically, and ruefully, asked one recent visitor.

Gas station price billboards are going to advertise gas station prices. Don't know what to tell you, Ronnyboy.

The White House's focus on gas prices is bred from two sobering political conclusions top officials have made. The first is that they have little control over the problem.

No, you actually do, you just don't want to do the things that will bring prices down, because they involve increasing supply.

The second is that as prices rise at the pump, so do Democrats' odds of a midterm wipeout -- especially as the average U.S. gallon of gas hits fresh record highs.

"There really isn't one silver bullet," said one person familiar with the discussions. "It's a really difficult issue to message around when you can't deny the reality."

...

The predicament has vexed administration officials already battling rising costs on a number of other fronts, with inflation at a 40-year high and polls showing voters souring on Biden's handling of the economy.

Publicly, the White House has continued to blame Russia for the record gas prices, attempting for months to brand the increase as "Putin's price hike" in hopes of convincing people the issue is largely out of Biden's hands. But with the war showing no signs of abating, some Democrats privately complain that the messaging is ineffective -- and that the White House needs to make a bigger show of at least attempting to fix the problem.

The article notes that among Biden's "solutions" is to simply publicize minor fixes he's already implemented, and which have already failed to make much impact. For example, he recently dispatched Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who has previously talked up the benefit of high energy prices, to tour the National Petroleum Reserve to simply bring media attention to the fact that Biden released oil from it a month ago.

...

Yet even Granholm, during her tour, allowed that the government has a limited arsenal left, telling CNN that "the president doesn't control the price."

So as you can tell, Biden has no actual solutions he is willing to implement. Oh, there are solutions -- namely, undertaking the pro-energy agenda that Trump implemented, that turned America into an energy powerhouse and powered our economy up to full throttle -- but his New Green Deal greenik coalition partners will not permit that without an open revolt, which will cost him 25% of his remaining 38% support.

So what is Biden's strategy for dealing with gas prices?

Well, as you can glean from the Politco article above, his strategy is not to deal with the reality of high gas prices, but to deal with perceptions about high gas prices.

As the article closes:

"There's probably nothing that will get gas back close to $3 a gallon," Sahm said. "But doing something is better than not doing something, because at least the president can say I'm trying."

They just want the media to carry the message that Biden is trying, and also, It's not really his fault, you know.

And also: President Biden doesn't really have much control over gas prices, you know.

Well, wouldn't you know it? Look what the Washington Post dialed up for its Special Propaganda Messaging today -- a long special animated Power Point Presentation for the Masses (TM) about why gas prices aren't Biden's fault, and why he really can't do anything about them beyond what he's already doing (TM).

WHAT ARE THE ODDS?!?!!

The Washington Post @washingtonpost

Gas prices have more than doubled in two years, saddling millions of people who drive cars and trucks every day with enormous costs.

What happened?

Everything.

The economy's rapid recovery from the pandemic created more demand for gasoline, pushing prices higher. The invasion of Ukraine led to a global backlash against Russia, which produces more oil than all but two other countries. So prices went higher again.

Oooh, animations! No one who uses animations could lie to me!

Isn't it just such an amazing bit of kismet that the moment Ron Klain is most desperate about the relentless "advertising" of gas station's price billboards, his political propagandist allies at the Washington Post ride to his rescue with this Propaganda Power Point?!

Remember just yesterday, that NBC "News" article noted that Crankpants McGee was grousing that his media pals weren't giving him enough credit for all his economic successes?

Well what do you know?!!

Joe Scarborough @JoeNBC

America is the indispensable country for spreading freedom once again, we are aligned again with allies in a stronger NATO, and we are standing up to tyrants abroad instead of sucking up to them. Biden is also fighting fascists, crackpots, insurrectionists, and weirdos at home.

All in all, a good start. For those claiming Biden should do more on inflation, give us your plan. You're a lying hack or an ignorant rube if you claim this president has had more than a passing impact on inflation. See China's COVID policy, Russia's war, and past DC deficits.

As with gas prices: "Biden doesn't really have much control over inflation, you know."

posted by Ace at 05:15 PM

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