FROM STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE TO STRATEGIC POLITICAL RESERVE: Is Obama’s Oil Dump A Political Ploy? “This looks a lot more like a blatant effort to manipulate oil prices globally, using U.S. resources. Frankly, the president doesn’t have a right to do that.”

Of course it is. And it’s a sign of desperation that they’re playing this card so early. Perhaps they hope that this will hurt some speculators and that that will have longer-term effects, but I doubt it. LBJ tried the same thing when he dumped government aluminum stockpiles on the market, but without the desired effect, as Joe Califano recounts that price pressure just moved into other commodities. LBJ wound up being a one-termer. Will that be Obama’s fate? He seems to have no better understanding of markets than LBJ had.