Obama has upped his campaign game on energy in the past week, while conceding there is little he can do to combat the rising gas prices before November. The president has been advocating an "all of the above" response to gas prices, including pushing more domestic oil production and stricter fuel-efficiency standards. Average gas prices reached $3.65 a gallon last week, about 12 percent higher than last year. "Four dollars per gallon has typically been the tipping point when people go from complacency to exasperation," said pollster Geoff Garin. Republican presidential candidates have been quick to jump on the issue, especially Newt Gingrich, who has been promising $2.50 a gallon gas this week as a last-ditch effort to save his falling poll numbers. The White House was quick to pounce on its critics' claims. "There is no silver bullet. There never has been," Obama said on the trail yesterday. "It's the easiest thing in the world to make phony election-year promises about lower gas prices." However, if gas prices keep rising and Obama fails at framing the problem on his terms, the issue will become increasingly contentious in the fall.
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Chart of the Day
We've lost nearly a full decade in economic progress to the downturn, according to The Economist. Germany is in the best position out of similarly advanced economies, only three years behind the times. Unsurprisingly, Greece has fared the worst.
Reason to Get Out of Bed in the Morning
One thing you don't have to add to your list of things to worry about for 2012 is any country building a Death Star-it would cost
$852,000,000,000,000,000 just to buy the steel to build it. After that, it would take 833,315 years to put together.
