I think one thing a good 527 could do is to go to Fort McMurray, Alberta, and take a few shots of what unrestricted resources exploitation looks like.  Blade Runner looks like a Elven Haven by comparison.

Of course, there is another angle to this: yet again, as with Bush, McCain is refusing to ask the American people curb their appetite for gasoline and to rape the environment instead.  Perhaps this won't work in places where people continue to have a love affair with their SUVs, but to stress on the essential selfishness of McCain-Bush approach does present a story arc that is consistent with the Obama line throughout the Primaries.  And I think there is no better "surrogate" for Obama on this issue than Gore.

I personally think that gas prices went down because Morneau won the home-run derby at the MLB All Star game and also scored the winning run for the American League.

Correlation vs. Causation, people.  Seriously.

And I don't know if his gas-price pitch is toward the center.  It seems to be populist rhetoric instead of centrist.

icarusr: good thoughts.

The correlation has become a Republican talking point during the past few days. A bunch of Republican senators have been making the same point when debating drilling in front of their colleagues. In short, Chris is right that this move only ties McCain to the Republican establishment, which is not part of his biography-based, maverick campaign.

Of course it could not possibly have anything to do with America's consumption being down 500 million barrels for the year so far; it *must* have been Bush's posturing that did it, because we all know that politics, like economics, is about "posturing", all it takes is the correct posture and everything will work out as Phil Gramm told us it would.

So, if a little posturing brought the price down, that means the speculation made the prices go up in the first place, right?  No, as our conversative friends are quick to remind us, which means that McCains statements are either bunk or bunk.

I thought that McCain's assertion was so disingenuous as to be disgusting (and certainly disqualifying.)  If I wanted a President who was so detached from reality, I would be happy with the one we have.  What really nauseates me though, is the thought that this BS will resonate with middle America, where a popular narrative is that gas prices are high because environmentalists are preventing exploration for oil at home.  

It is a complicated truth that what this really demonstrates is that the price of oil will respond dramatically to cuts in consumption.  Is it possible for Obama to get that message across?

If Dubya's [symbolic and completely empty] gesture of lifting the moratorium on offshore drilling had any relation to reduction in oil prices, why didn't his trip to Suadi Arabia have the same effect. Oh, yes.  Dubya's fabulous, vaunted jawboning abilities were: INEFFECTIVE.

in any event, does McCain expect us to believe everyone is stupid and doesn't know that only Congress can legally lift the ban on offshore drilling. or does McCain expect this moratorium lifting to be another extralegal action by is highness, King George II?

Yes. These kind of actions and comments and  do move markets. Particularly short term. If the Fed were to signal that it was going to move interest rates one way or another, even if the time horizon were distant, there would be a commensurate reaction in the futures markets. Perceptions are the reality in this arena and it is always forward looking. Greed and fear.

Via TNR's Chris Orr, John McCain made this fantastical claim about President Bush's influence on the price of crude oil: "In case you missed it, soon as the President announced that we were going to end the moratorium on offshore