Why is Obama so rattled by Newt Gingrich?

Spread the love

Loading

Newt Gingrich can’t win a primary for love or money, but he sure has gotten under President Obama’s skin. His attacks on the president’s energy policy, or lack thereof, appear to have unnerved the normally unflappable Mr. Obama.

The president has scoffed at Gingrich’s promise to lower gasoline prices to $2.50, while likening those who challenge his own love affair with alternative fuels to “founding members of the flat earth society.”

The president describes suggested measures that could bring down gas prices as akin to waving a “magic wand”; his press secretary Jay Carney accused anyone promising $2.50 gas of “lying”. How can Mr. Gingrich, who is nearly out of the GOP race, so rattle the White House?

There are good reasons for Mr. Obama’s discomfort. First is the almost immediate hit to the president’s popularity when gasoline prices go up. Rightly or wrongly, Americans hold him accountable. In fact, the president is vulnerable on this topic.

He has consistently portrayed fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas as energy products of the past while expressing an almost unimaginably naïve optimism about the potential of alternatives. His attachment to high-cost “green” energy has played well with environmentalists but for most of the country – the roughly 50% not concerned about global warming — it is increasingly viewed as an expensive boondoggle.

President Obama’s enthusiasm for green tech is especially inappropriate in the midst of a recession. A new study has shown that mandates to use alternative energy now in place in 29 states – and proposed on a national scale by Mr. Obama – have caused electricity rates to soar. On average, those states are paying 32% more for electricity than their neighbors. This is a horrifying tax that is even now filtering through to businesses and households in states like California, which has lately adopted the most stringent mandates in the country. Nothing could retard our recovery faster than jacking up power rates across the country, but that is exactly what this president wants to do.

Read More…

~~~

In the meantime, Newt’s added more traps in his campaign ads, to ensnare Obama in more energy lies.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of

1 Comment
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

…the normally unflappable Mr. Obama.

Are we talking about the same obama?