It’s been a busy week on the campaign trail with shots firing in all directions. Michele Bachmann is promising to bring back $2 per gallon gasoline under a Bachmann administration.
Report from CNN:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — President Michele Bachmann has a promise: $2 gas.
“Under President Bachmann you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again,” Bachmann told a crowd Tuesday in South Carolina. “That will happen.”
Sure, politicians promise all kinds of things on the campaign trail. But Bachmann, a leading contender for the 2012 Republican nomination, is wading into truly tricky territory.
The price Americans pay at the pump is tied to the crude oil market — a global system largely beyond the reach of Washington.
It’s certainly true that prices — now about $3.50 a gallon on average — have risen since President Obama took office.
“The day that the president became president gasoline was $1.79 a gallon,” Bachmann said. “Look what it is today.”
That is a lofty promise to make since it provides a quantifiable measure by which failure, or success, can be assessed.
On the other front, Texas Congressman Ron Paul opened a jocular line of attack on Texas Governor Rick Perry concerning Perry’s comments that the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke would be treated “pretty ugly” if he stepped foot in Texas.
Report from Politico:
Making a campaign stop in Concord, N.H., Wednesday, Ron Paul bragged about his status as a critic of the Federal Reserve — and poked fun at his home-state governor, Rick Perry, for his heated comments about Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.
“Now they have this other governor, I can’t remember his name,” Paul joked. “He realizes that talking about the Fed is good, too. But I’ll tell you what, he makes me sound like a moderate. I have never once said Bernanke has committed treason. But I have suggested very strongly that the Federal Reserve system and all the members have been counterfeiters for a long time.”
Perry is treading into the issues most dear by his fellow candidates whether it be social/fiscal issues with Bachmann or fiscal issues with Paul.
