NCTexan Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 WSJ: Would You Buy a New Car From This Man? James Taranto - Best of the Web Today At a town-hall meeting yesterday in Fairless Hills, Pa., a man in the audience asked Obama about gasoline prices, which are currently in the range of $4 a gallon. According to the Associated Press, Obama responded "laughingly" and "needled" the questioner. The president's sarcasm comes through in the White House transcript: I know some of these big guys, they're all still driving their big SUVs. You know, they got their big monster trucks and everything. You're one of them? Well, now, here's my point. If you're complaining about the price of gas and you're only getting eight miles a gallon--(laughter)--you may have a big family, but it's probably not that big. How many you have? Ten kids, you say? Ten kids? (Laughter.) Well, you definitely need a hybrid van then. (Laughter.) . . . So, like I said, if you're getting eight miles a gallon you may want to think about a trade-in. You can get a great deal. I promise you, GM or Ford or Chrysler, they're going to be happy to give you a deal on something that gets you better gas mileage. The transcript shows that Obama got lots of laughs. But presumably he was speaking to a friendly audience--to people who regard the burning of gasoline as sinful and who, at least in theory, are attracted to the idea of $8-a-gallon gasoline. =============================== This leave me totally speechless and angry... coming from the mouth of the president of the United States to a citizen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geee Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 The picture says it all-arrogance. This guy does not have a clue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepper Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 NCTexan Here's the arrogant blustering bully in full He doesn't answer the question. Just yada yada lie lie yada yada All right. Who’s next? Who’s next? Gentleman right here. Q How you doing, Mr. President? THE PRESIDENT: I’m good. Q My name is Jazz (ph). You were talking about the rise of gas prices. Is there any way that -- talks of lowering the prices? I mean, I know back in the ‘70s when we had this conflict, they were going from -- our license plates, from odd to evens, days we could get gas. I know we’re not at that stage right now, but they did lower the prices after that. Is there a chance of the price being lowered again? THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me go over what I said a little bit earlier. Most of the reason the gas price spiked three years ago was demand for oil increased. Then what happened was we had the terrible recession. A lot of businesses closed, a lot of folks were out of work, folks were driving fewer miles, so demand for oil goes down, prices went down. And by the way, oil prices are worldwide prices, so you don’t just have like a U.S. market for oil -- you’ve got a world market for oil. Anything that happens anywhere in the world will lower the price. So now the economy is picking up, which is a good thing. More folks are finding jobs. Businesses are starting to hire again. And that’s happening all around the world. So now you’re starting to see demand go back up and the prices are going back up. You add on top of that what’s happening in the Middle East and it makes folks nervous and so these folks start saying, you know what, I’m going to bid a higher price on oil, on a barrel of oil now, because I’m thinking it’s going to go up a little further in case something happens on the world oil markets. And that pushes prices up just a little bit more. Now, there are a couple of things that we can do. But I’m just going to be honest with you, there’s not much we can do next week or two weeks from now. What we can do is, for example, increase oil production here in the United States. So we are out there -- here’s a little secret for you. We actually have seen higher oil production here in the United States than any time in our history. We are producing a lot of oil. It’s just demand keeps on going up faster than production. But we can still do more. Now, we just had the Gulf crisis last summer when everything was messed up. And so what I had to do was I had to say, you know what, before we start drilling again out there, then I want you guys to show me proof that you can actually do this safely and when something goes wrong you can cap that thing so we’re not going through six months of oil just spilling into the ocean and ruining coastal communities and hurting fishermen and so forth. We now have a situation where the safety rules have been improved and drilling is beginning again in that region. But the drilling that’s taking place in the Gulf now, that product doesn’t get to market right away. We’re also saying, you know, let’s look in places like off the Atlantic or in Alaska. If there are other places where we can do some offshore drilling, we’ll do it. But here’s the thing about oil. We have about 2, maybe 3 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves; we use 25 percent of the world’s oil. So think about it. Even if we doubled the amount of oil that we produce, we’d still be short by a factor of five. So we can’t just drill our way out of the problem. And that’s why the second thing we can do is increase efficiency on cars and trucks, which is where most of our oil is used. (Applause.) Now, I notice some folks clapped, but I know some of these big guys, they’re all still driving their big SUVs. You know, they got their big monster trucks and everything. You’re one of them? Well, now, here’s my point. If you’re complaining about the price of gas and you’re only getting eight miles a gallon -- (laughter) -- you may have a big family, but it’s probably not that big. How many you have? Ten kids, you say? Ten kids? (Laughter.) Well, you definitely need a hybrid van then. (Laughter.) But here’s the thing is that last year, for the first time in 30 years, we increased fuel-efficiency standards on cars and trucks. And we didn’t do it, by the way, with a law. We got autoworkers, auto companies, environmentalists -- everybody agreed to it. That’s going to save us about 1.8 billion barrels of oil. But we can do more. The more efficient our auto fleets are, the more efficient our truck fleets are, the less people are using -- that lowers gas prices as well. So that’s the second thing we can do. The third thing we can do is we can start looking at electric cars, and maybe natural gas cars, so that we’re not just using petroleum to power our vehicles. That would be, by the way, a huge boost for Gamesa. If you’ve got a much better distribution network for electric cars -- right now, some of these electrics, you should be able to just plug it in into your garage; you basically just have a big socket. You plug it in at night, unplug it, you’re driving it all day. You get home, you plug it back in, and if you’ve got one of these smart boxes in your garage, the unused electricity from your car actually goes back into your house. And so you’re saving both ways. But the problem is right now that we don’t have a broad enough distribution network. The cost of advanced batteries for cars is still a little bit too expensive, so we’re trying to drive down the price. It’s like anything else, though; it’s the same with your wind turbine, the same with wind energy -- the more you make, the cheaper it gets, because the technology improves, you’re creating more of them, you get economies of scale. So number one, increase oil production. But that’s not a short -- that’s not a long -- a short-term solution, and it’s a not a long-term solution, either; it will just -- it will help a little bit. Number two, more efficient cars so we’re using our gas more effectively. Number three, shifting to electric cars and other forms of transportation so we don’t use oil as much. None of that is going to help you this week, though. So, like I said, if you’re getting eight miles a gallon you may want to think about a trade-in. You can get a great deal. I promise you, GM or Ford or Chrysler, they’re going to be happy to give you a deal on something that gets you better gas mileage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SrWoodchuck Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 NCTexan! He wouldn't deign to sell you anything concrete.....'cause it's too much like work.....which he runs from. Hybrid car made by UAW = $ 50,000.00, minus government lure -$ 7,500.00 = $ 42,500.00. Net cost of same Hybrid vehicle, without UAW legacies, compensation & perks = $ 18,000.00. Money redistributed by Barack Obama & company = $32,000.00! Hypocrite-in-chief has a heavily armored pResidential limo [because he's in it & it has to have 5" armor plate] called "The Beast," that gets no more than two miles per gallon! Not to mention his resurrected jet "fuelish" speaking engagements & vacations that will now increase because he's a professional campaigner on his 2012 trail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCTexan Posted April 7, 2011 Author Share Posted April 7, 2011 Hybrid car made by UAW = $ 50,000.00, minus government lure -$ 7,500.00 = $ 42,500.00. In a takeoff of the old MasterCard commercial: Hybrid car... $50,000 Hybrid rose... $29.95 Hybrid onion... $0.53 Hybrid president... not worth 2 cents! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepper Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Per Wiki, the bastion of democratic information "The vehicle fuel consumption is about 8 miles per gallon which on metric system corresponds to around 30 litres/100km" Figuring they stop and start to let him yada yada it can't be 8, besides, they have at least two decoys so 8 divided by 3 is certainly less than 3 mpg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valin Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 [article=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_L-m1OUJYigc/TMaUJKKd4yI/AAAAAAAAAg0/38BkDRCTrNU/s400/obama+smug_obama.jpg]WSJ: Would You Buy a New Car From This Man? I'd rather deal with this guy.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCTexan Posted April 7, 2011 Author Share Posted April 7, 2011 I'd rather deal with this guy.... Valin! Me too... a lot more integrity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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