My oil conspiracy......

I do not believe the oil markets are telling us the truth. The sudden rise in oil, followed by the sudden collapse, are just too coincidental for everything to be on the up and up. When viewed from a far, meaning outside of 'supply and demand', it seems to me that the oil companies were trying to maximize their returns before having to cut prices dramatically to boost Republican chances in November. I was called a fool when I said, in July, that gas would be $2 by election day. I said that the oil companies would try and help McCain win by taking the gasoline worry off of the minds of the American public...but the oil companies lost and the drive by media fired everyone up about the cratering economy. Now, faced with Obama, Democratic majorities, and a mandate for real change, oil has fallen precipitously. My question is why....and I believe the answer makes the oil companies out to be nothing more than criminal.

Oil was $150 a barrel in July, and gasoline was over $4 a gallon in late July of this year. Barack Obama had just returned from his successful overseas trip, and he was 10 points ahead of John McCain. Then oil and gas prices began to fall and basically halved themselves by election day. I believe the oil companies were trying to take gasoline off the minds of consumers so they wouldn't elect Obama, and as many Democrats. While that is criminal in and of itself, whatever, what I am more concerned about is how far oil has fallen since Obama won. I believe the oil companies think they're fighting for their very survival. I think they view the incoming Obama administration as radically dangerous to their business models. I think that the drop in prices right now is an effort by oil companies to take away the public will for green energy. I myself have been a victim of their nefariousness. I drive a pickup, and it gets decent gas mileage. But even now I'm not even thinking about how much I spend on gas or drive, when all summer with gas at $4 a gallon I religiously watched my total mileage each day. I've even caught myself looking at Hummers and Ford F150s the other day, thinking how it wouldn't be that much more to drive one of those. I was astonished at myself given how much of a gasoline Nazi I was over the summer. If the drop in prices put fuel efficiency on the back burner, I know it done the same for Joe the Plumber.

I don't believe this is a result of supply and demand, but that this is blatant manipulation by the oil companies. Prices don't sky rocket in a global slowdown, given that a report came out last week that said our economy has been in a recession for over a year, then suddenly plummet. Sure, we can say the world was still booming, but we use 25% of the oil. If we are in a recession, oil should not go up. It means we aren't buying Chinese products, therefore they need less oil. The oil companies are doing this because Obama has 2-3 initiatives he can implement immediately when he gets into office. He'll get his way with hardly any pushback from Republicans as long as he includes them in the process. The first is going to be an economic recovery package of some kind. My guess is that Paulson leaves Obama some money from the remaining $350 Billion, but not enough to really do anything, which forces the Democrats to pass a new bill, which Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid will load with welfare giveaways, union giveaways, 'training programs', and other complete wastes of money when the money should be given directly to you and I in a rebate check. I'll spend my money better than my government will. For example, the American people have already rejected the bailout of the Big 3 by buying Hondas and Toyotas. The second is going to be Iraq, continuing the gains there, but funding veteran's healthcare and redeploying and reconstituting our force in Afghanistan. Everyone has pretty much agreed to this already, but the Republican genie is going to say this is one of his wishes. So that leaves one more initiative, combat energy independence or healthcare. If the oil companies can remove the problem of oil and gas prices from the American mind, not only will they take away Obama's political capital, but they can then say any Obama energy initiative will return prices back to July, and blame any future price hikes by them on Democrats. They're trying to make universal healthcare reform more appealing to Obama than revamping our national energy policy.

To get around this, Obama could group all the domestic stuff into one big stimulus package....take care of the healthcare and energy monkey while stimulating the economy. Put the energy lobby up against fixing the economy. My personal opinion is that within 6 weeks we will see $.99 a gallon gas. Thankfully, when asked 2 weeks ago if that the fall in oil put energy independence on the back burner in light of all that is of pressing need to the country, Obama responded that now that prices have dropped, it is even more pressing, so we can use this time of price relief to our benefit.