CNN: RISING GAS PRICES ARE BAD NEWS FOR DEMOCRATS.

CNN had two of their reporters on air for a segment on rising gas prices today and the news from both of them was bad news for Democrats. First up was senior data reporter Harry Enten who talked about how gas prices might impact the midterms.

“This year is off the charts, right? It’s ridiculously high, the growth rate right now,” Enten said. He continued, “I’ve done this a few times on air and each time the now number goes up, up and up and up.” He was referring to this graphic seen above which shows the current surge in gas prices is higher than in previous midterm cycles.

Enten said the correlation to bad news for the incumbent party wasn’t perfect but in this case the gas prices are part of a “larger economic context” all of which boils down to Americans being “really not happy at this point.” Enten went on to point out that the economy was far and away the top issue. Other issues like gun control and abortion don’t even come close.

Next up was reporter Matt Egan who was doing a stand-up from a gas station in New York. “Unfortunately, probably no relief is coming and people are not happy about it,” Egan said. “At this gas station in Manhattan gas is now selling for $6 a gallon,” he said.

Just a few days ago, Ed [Morrissey] noted that analysts were predicting regular gas could hit $5 a gallon by June 17. But according to AAA, the national average is up 25 cents in the past week to $4.86. Now Tom Kloza, the energy analyst who tracks prices for AAA, says $5 a gallon gas could happen as soon as this weekend.

Of course CNN reporters are surprised by this development, because it was actually predicted by a debate televised on CNN in 2019, which even they didn’t bother to watch: In September of 2019, after CNN’s seven hour “climate change town hall,” Bryan Preston wrote, “Seriously, if you see all of the above — which is just a sample — and vote for any of these people for any office at any level, it’s on you. If you like Venezuela, voting for any of them will bring you a whole lot of Venezuela.”

And as Kate of Small Dead Animals wrote after the CNN horror show, “Don’t make the mistake of thinking they don’t mean it.”

Or as Glenn asked last week in his New York Post column, “So does the Biden administration actually want to see middle-class Americans reduced to poverty and privation? Or is it just too stupid to foresee the obvious consequences of its own actions? At this point, I’m not even sure which is worse. But with the midterms coming, no amount of talk about gun control, abortion or other Democratic hot-button issues is going to distract Americans from what’s happening to their pocketbooks. Good.”

Flashbacks:

● Aren’t California’s High Gas Prices What The Left Have Wanted?

● NBC, the Washington Post, and the New York Times in lockstep call for higher gas taxes.

● 2008 L.A. Times headline: “The joy of $8 gas.”

Exit quote: “Under my plan, energy costs will necessarily skyrocket…”

In other words, Obama administration retreads are following the same playbook as the original Obama administration: “We’re going to keep at it to ensure the American people are paying their fair share for gas,” is the perfect Kinsley Gaffe for an Obama administration retread like Biden:  As Steven Chu, Obama’s then-incoming energy secretary, told the Wall Street Journal in the fall of 2008: “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”

So is it fair to ask if Biden is on the payroll of Putin? As Walter Russell Mead wrote in 2017:

If Trump were the Manchurian candidate that people keep wanting to believe that he is, here are some of the things he’d be doing:

Limiting fracking as much as he possibly could
Blocking oil and gas pipelines
Opening negotiations for major nuclear arms reductions
Cutting U.S. military spending
Trying to tamp down tensions with Russia’s ally Iran.

“Yep,” Glenn added in late 2019. “You know who did do these things? Obama. You know who supports these things now? Democrats.”

Speaking of the Obama era, this 2012 CNN headline is a classic: Opinion: America, quit whining about gas.

Fuel is a drug the U.S. has long since needed weaning off. Admittedly Americans have to cover greater distances than Europeans. But you don’t need a glorified double bed powered by a throbbing great V8 to do that. A sensibly-sized car with a two-liter turbo will do the job just as comfortably.

And with developing nations such as China, Brazil and India demanding ever more fuel, the planet can’t put up with anyone’s penchant for gas-guzzling monsters any more.

But if the European experience is anything to go by, the $4 gallon isn’t going to alter driving habits dramatically. America needs petrol prices to double if people are to permanently park up their 15mpg pick-up trucks. Maybe then it’ll elicit a bit of sympathy from over here.

Curiously, with midterms looming, DNC-CNN isn’t running similar pieces this year.

Related: Biden tormented by Republican guerrilla campaign and ‘I did it’ stickers.

Also: 100Pcs I Did That Biden Funny Car Stickers. #Resist #CommissionEarned

UPDATE: Father on MSNBC Summarizes How Bad Democrats Are Getting Shellacked in November With One Perfect Sentence. “One administration had cheaper gas and this administration has more expensive gas.”

Why aren’t American voters appreciating Biden’s self-declared “incredible transition?!” Biden praises high gas prices as part of ‘incredible transition’ of the US economy away from fossil fuels.

(Updated and bumped.)