How can the price of gas GO DOWN when the cost of the primary material STAYS THE SAME?

It’s public record.

You do realize, of course, that the midterm elections were on Tuesday, November 7, 2006, not Monday, Nov 6, 2006

You do, and Exxon/Mobil does, when you buy gasoline. If you didn’t benefit as much, you would not consume as much. There were numerous very clear demonstrations of this concept two days ago on Black Friday. When someone wants a computer, they want to pay the lowest price they can for it - that much is patently obvious. But what is also patently obvious but for some reason people have trouble with is how the price can be dropped so low (as on Black Friday) that people who did not previously want a computer now do want one, and the people who did want a computer now want two. Or three. And are willing to camp out in front of a Best Buy for eight hours to get them. For some reason an absurd number of people are absolutely convinced that the only goal a corporation has is to make products that are priced so high that nobody can buy them. If Exxon/Mobil and every other gas company set gasoline prices at $10,000 a gallon tomorrow morning, you’d be able to get a gallon of gas for $10 or less by lunch time - that’s how powerful a market economy is. (ie, the first person driving to work would see the sign $10,000 [and 9/10ths of a cent]. Chances are he makes less than that in a day, so he buys a portable gas tank, grabs a piece of cardboard from a dumpster and makes a sign saying “Gas $5,000 a gallon”. Next person to drive by sees this and thinks “hell, I’m not that picky - I’d be happy with a few hundred bucks” and siphons his gas out for anybody willing to pay $100 a gallon. Et cetera, et cetera.)

The evidence for any direct manipulation (let alone manipulation that has some impact on election results) is crummy. Notice, once again, that the price of gas hits almost the same low near 10/25 as it does on 11/6. How do we account for that under the Twitching Mustache Hypothesis? I guess Bush’s computer went on the fritz and he couldn’t set his Gas Price Preferences. Where I live, gas went down 1c/gal the day after the election, stayed that way for the next two weeks, then went up about 4c/gal about a week ago. I guess the Exxon/Mobil locations got their marching orders a bit late or something, I don’t know. You think they’d be up on the ball on this. I mean, hello - there’s no ‘i’ in “conspiracy.” Oh wait. Well, I’m sure they can come up with a better teambuilding slogan while they’re waiting for the next plot to be hatched.

From an article (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/general_ssi/content/money_business/MT/060926/why_isnt_bush_better_at_manipu_1.htm)
titled “Why Isn’t Bush Better at Manipulating Gas Prices?”:

“Gas prices have been tumbling since they peaked at about $3 a gallon less than two months ago [in July]…What a brilliant move by the Bushies–drive prices well beyond the comfort zone during the summer driving season, to enrich their Big Oil buddies, then promptly lower them for the fall campaigns, knowing, of course, that consumers will have no memory whatsoever of all that dough they shelled out just to drive to the beach.

But why didn’t they do that last time? In 2004, when the entire presidency was at stake, not just a number of congressional seats, the White House did a miserable job of managing gas prices. Pump prices started the year at $1.49–comfortable even for SUV owners–then rose steadily to a peak of $2.03 in late May. Over the summer they drifted back down by about 20 cents, but then they rose again right up until Election Day, to about $1.95. If ever Bush needed to pump his pocketbook credentials it was then, when he nearly lost to a very weak opponent.”

But some people will never be convinced. They just seem to get too much perverse enjoyment in the idea that they are being directly, consciously, and oh-so-skillfully manipulated by Huge Powers That Be. It’s very odd; you find the same phenomenon when you ask people about luck. When it comes to virtually everything else - looks, intelligence, driving ability - we think we’re above average. But ask anyone about the ebb and flow of chance in their lives and they’ll most likely tell you that they have the worst luck of anybody they know, and they almost look happy saying so.

At any rate, the burden of proof is on the conspiracy theorists, not the common sensists, and they have a long way to go before any reasonable person should be anywhere near convinced.

Energy companies have been cut a lot of slack under Bush with decreased environmental regulation under the misnamed “Clear Skies Initiative” and Cheney’s allowing energy executives to write U.S. energy policy. On top of that, the increased volatility in the Middle East have sent profits soaring. Qui bono?–Who benefits?