From TPM Reader AB …
It’s interesting that you’re batting around this topic today. Because I just got off the phone with my Dad, who’s an 80 y.o. died-in-the-wool Democratic and would vote for Hillary in a second (but as a former upstate Scranton, Pa. area first generation Polish immigrant probably won’t ever vote for Obama.
I was complaining about what it’s costing to fill the gas tank, and he started on about how Hillary and McCain want to do something about it by “getting rid of that tax” while “the black guy” is against that.
I said, simply and in terms he could understand:
“If the government knocks off those 18 cents a gallon, what do you think the oil companies are going do? They’re going to raise the price of gas by 18 cents and you’ll be paying exactly the same amount. Until September when even McCain and Hillary say they’ll put the tax back on, and you’ll end up paying even more than before. It’s not gas tax relief for you, it’s a give-away to the oil companies”.
I think that really struck him as something he never actually considered, because he switched to the old “well, we’ve got to get all of those politicians out of the oil companies’ back pockets, . . . ”
I really don’t understand why the Obama campaign isn’t slamming this message hard.
Ask Hillary and McCain how they know the oil companies won’t raise their prices, and ask them and the press to try to get the oil companies on record promising not to do so. They can’t do it. They have no answer. That’s the response.
