Three Democratic Finishes - Bad News For GOP - and GAS PAIN RELIEF
First the bad news, for John McCain and Republicans. Most polls show over 72 percent of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. The last times we saw results like that were 1976, when Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford, 1980, when Jimmy Carter was defeated, and 1992 when Bill Clinton ousted George Bush. This is not hopeful. And it’s also the first time that the Republicans, getting a free ride right now on the Clinton-Obama fight, have had some discouraging news.
Now, on to the Democrats. There are three scenarios for the end of the Democratic slug-fest, at least from this perspective. If Barack Obama wins Indiana and North Carolina, the fight could end within days, with pressure from the party brass and super delegates to bring it to a conclusion. The second scenario: The two split the states. In that case, the battle will go on to the final primary on June 3. The most controversial scenario: Hillary Clinton wins both elections Tuesday. That will guarantee that the battle will most likely last through the summer and go directly to the Democratic Convention in Denver, which is a nightmare situation for the Democrats. This coming Tuesday will be another Super Tuesday.
GAS PAINS — A subject for state and local investigators. And this is a must. Are local gas stations pumping up the price before the market dictates? The fluctuations are too dramatic, and the differences in price from one station to another are STRANGE! LOCAL TV STATIONS SHOULD START CHECKING THIS OUT IMMEDIATELY. Also, why are some stations suddenly “out” of regular gas, forcing drivers to pay premium prices?
Congratulations to President Bush for the solace offered to consumers in his brief and exasperated White House remarks. His solution for gasoline prices: not to pressure his Saudi friends to ease up, or to jawbone the oil industry. No, his suggestion is to open up the Alaskan oil reserves. Now, that is really visionary thinking. His oil friends in Midland Texas are crying about this consumer crisis all the way to the bank.
And you wonder why over 70 pct of Americans think the country is going in the wrong direction
FINAL ITEM — With gasoline prices so high, why haven’t we heard more from the Presidential hopefuls on getting more bucks for Mass Transit??
Big Brown just won the Kentcuky Derby, and as most readers know I refer to Obama as the Brown One, Hillary’s philly, Eight Bells ,who was just put down, is now dead. The Brown One, or Big Brown will be the nominee! The Derbey has determined the election!
Larry, stations run out of regular gas because of supply and demand. Refining is at capacity; demand is still high, despite the price, because many people choose to live a long way from their jobs and to drive. Demand for higher grades is lower, so it’s what’s left over when regular sells out. Unless oil companies bring more refining capacity online, or until idiots stop driving hither and yon in pickup trucks and SUVs, this will become more and more common.
Mass transit principally appeals to people in large urban areas, not to people out in the boonies. Witness PA politics on mass transit funding. Do people in rural Tennessee want to pay taxes to improve mass transit in PA? No. It’s a local situation. But I’m sure they’ll continue to bail out Amtrak so they can commute back and forth from D.C. to New York.
Hillary was riding that philly thing hard. (Pun intended.) I hope someone puts her down soon.
Dead Horse jokes - not funny. As far as the shortage of regular, I have a feeling that some people using the higher octanes (often whether their cars needed it or not) or just downgrading.
Let’s hope Obama puts Hillary down this week. Then she’s off to the glue factory.
Larry,
Looks like it is time for you to give up the blog and head to Washington. You have solutions to the gas and the free air crises. You’d push for cutting off discussions with terrorists. You’d undoubtedly end the war immediately. You are da bomb.
Disappointed in your piling President Bush on the Alaskan reserves idea. I would have thought that you’d jump all over the gas tax vacation proposed by 3$Hill and Johnny Mc. 18 cents a gallon leading to average of $30 savings over the summer is an insult and a perfect example of pandering.
You would never pander in Washington, would you Lar?
While refinery capacity has remained high and there’s no movement on the horizon to build new ones, the demand for gasoline is down and the reserves for it are at 15 year highs. There’s still too much usage on lower milage cars but, the market is responding in terms of demand and supply. There’s just no response in terms of price.
BTW. What’s with almost a week of arguments about Jimmy Carter becoming Larry Kane’s pinata and Hillery being a hottie? Can we get some substance?
FJ, short answer is no. This blog is topically not substantive. Larry scans headlines and puts his spin on it.
Would be nice though, FJ.
The answer is simple. We need cars that run on free air. And a president who will give everyone a goodnight kiss. Hillary is making sure that will be Johnny McSame. Yay! My taxes will go down. More more more for me! Too bad for the rest of you chumps.
Interesting about Mrs. McCain. Champe Miller
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WHAT A WOMAN!!! Bet you would have never guessed this one! No matter your politics. The media will never tell of this, so pass it on.
There was an article in the Wall Street Journal on Cindy McCain, John’s wife. All I ever saw was this attractive woman standing beside John. I was surprised how talented and involved with world problems she is. This is a summary of the article.
She graduated from Southern Cal and was a
special-needs teacher.
After her Dad died she became involved with his beer distributing firm and is now the chairwoman. Sales have doubled
since she has taken over from her father.
They have a marriage prenuptial agreement, her assets remain separate.
She is involved around the world clearing land mines - travels to these countries on a detonation team and service on their
board.
They have a 19 year old serving in Iraq, another son at the Naval Academy, a daughter recently graduated from Columbia Univ.,
an adopted daughter in high school, and a son who is the finance guy at the beer firm.
Raised kids in Phoenix, Az rather than Washington DC.(better atmosphere) He commuted.
In 1991, Mrs. McCain came across a girl in an orphanage in Bangladesh. Mother Teresa implored Mrs. McCain to take the baby
with severe cleft palate. She did so without first telling her husband. The couple adopted the girl who has had a dozen operations to repair her cleft palate and other medical problems.
They have a Family Foundation for children’s causes. She’s
active with “Halo Trust” - to clear land mines, provide water and food in war ravaged and developing countries.
She will join an overseas mission of “Operation Smile”, a charity for corrective surgery on children’s faces.
She has had two back surgeries and became addicted to pain killers. She talks openly about it which she says is part of
the recovery process.
I’m surprised the media is so quiet about her attributes. She sounds more capable than Hillary or Obama. We would
really get two for the price of one. A person with business and
international experience. John did work for the firm for awhile when
he left the Navy. She, however, has the real business experience.
Very interesting.
The last time I checked, John McCain was running for president, NOT his wife.
Why can’t we find a decent woman candidate?
AHG, you are as sharp as a tack…
I’d love to hear Margret Thatcher’s opinion of Hillary CLinton.
MT: Boarish shrew.
Let’s now put to bed the widely held view that there are different “grades” of gasoline in terms of performace level. This is not the case. All gasoline is the same chemical molecule composed of hydrogen and carbon atoms arranged in strings…typically there are strings called heptane, octane, nonane, decane, etc. Also, let’s not confuse gasoline with natural gasoline which is the main component of the natural gas liquids that are found when extracting natural gas and must be stripped from the natural gas in order to protect your natural gas appliance from damage. Octane is actually a figure of merit expressed as a number representing the resistance of gasoline to premature detonation when exposed to heat and pressure in the combustion chamber of an internal-combustion engine. Such detonation is wasteful of the energy in the fuel and potentially damaging to the engine; premature detonation is indicated by knocking or pinging noises that occur as the engine operates. If an engine running on a particular gasoline makes such noises, they can be lessened or eliminated by using a gasoline with a higher octane number. The octane number of a sample of fuel is determined by burning the gasoline in an engine under controlled conditions, e.g., of spark timing, compression, engine speed, and load, until a standard level of knock occurs. The engine is next operated on a fuel blended from a form of iso-octane that is very resistant to knocking and a form of heptane that knocks very easily. When a blend is found that duplicates the knocking intensity of the sample under test, the percentage of iso-octane by volume in the blended sample is taken as the octane number of the fuel. Octane numbers higher than 100 are found by measuring the amount of tetraethyl lead that must be added to pure iso-octane to duplicate the knocking of a sample fuel. At present three systems of octane rating are used in the United States. Two of these, the research octane and motor octane numbers, are determined by burning the gasoline in an engine under different, but specified, conditions. Usually the motor octane number is lower than the research octane. The third octane rating, which federal regulations require on commercial gasoline pumps, is an average of research octane and motor octane. Under this system a regular grade gasoline has an octane number of about 87 and a premium grade of about 93. Most American-made cars that were built in the 1971 model year or later can use regular gasoline. To prevent knocking, premium grade gasoline must be used in many cars built before 1971 and in some new cars that have high-performance. Also, keep in mind that there are two types of blends, called winter and summer blends. Thus, the bottom line is that a tanker truck delivers a load of gasoline composed of the various carbon-hydrogen strings, which had more or less additives added in order to make the commonly called regular, mid-grade or hight-test, although such labels could vary from station to station.
JJ are you a Petrologist? If so, do you know where Larry can get free gas?
JJ, Good background, but if you put 93 octane in a car that works well with 87 octane, you’re just burning money. I haven’t been forced to buy anything other than regular but if this is the case (reffed above), then someone is pulling a fast one. The greater market is for 87 and refining is done to the market. The amount of gasoline being purchased in the US is down in response to the price. According to Lundberg, the gas stockpile in the US is at a generation high. The overall market is skewed by the overall price at the well.
……and after McCain and his wife adopted the baby he was smeared by his own party. No good deed ever goes unpunished.
Larry,
the middle class americans see barry obama as another john kerry,flip flop, wimpy, elitist with no experience and his wife michelle comes across as a very angry,mean,mad person.
Larry,
Americans see JR as a broken record. Skip, skip, skip.
Americans also see HRC as an angry, bitter woman who has the audacity to call all economists “elitists” because none of them will support her terrible “gas tax” holiday suggestion. Robert Reich, who served in Bill’s administration, says that she is demonstrating the same traits that Bush did: an arrogance in denouncing the ideas of competent experts because they don’t agree with her. Maybe, like Bush, she also doesn’t accept scientific principles such as evolution, because “elitists” believe in evolution.
Larry,
the american middle class see that leo as the spin master for the flip flop john kerry barry obama elitist politicians that look out for the elites and forget about the middle class tax payers who carry the the country on their backs.
leo go have another cafe latte,hey maybe that’s why leo is always spinning.
GOD BLESS HILLARY(THE FIGHTER FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS)CLINTON AND GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!
The ingmition computers of many cars can regulate the timing to sdjust for varying octane levels. Ironically, the enrgy content of higher octane grades of gas is slightly lower than that of lower octane (because of the additives used to change the octane). Not that your milage would suffer noticeably, but there is a slight difference.
JR speaks for the entire middle class of the USA?
Only in JR’s world is the fact that Hillary rejected the considered views of the nation’s economists as “elitist” some kind of “spin.” She’s ignoring economic reality in order to bamboozle people who are hurting economically. She’s a liar and an opportunist who manipulates her constituents’ insecurities, whether economic or racial. She should be ashamed of herself.
JR speaks for the Clintonistas that cling to the belief that they were better off 10 years ago when 3$Bill was the First Felon. He has been convinced by the snake charming Clintons that they are responsible for everything good that happened during that 8 year period. He has also been reassured that all the bad stuff that occured really didn’t occur or was someone else’s indiscretion. They have rose colored glasses. They see no evil. HRC will save the middle class… as long as that is what focus groups are telling her to do… and she is not distracted by sniper fire.
“ashamed of herself” ?!? She gave up on that looooooong before the gas tax holiday!
Larry,
leo and the spinners,keep singing that same old song,
barry obama has zero answers and the Clinton bashers are a dime a dozen,
Larry,the next time leo and the spinners fill up the gas tank they will think of Hillary (the fighter for the middle class)Clinton.
JR’s equilibrium must be permanently damaged from all the spinning he does…
Leo, do you have a band? I didn’t realize you were a member of the Spinners?
Jack, did Hillary call you to tell you she’s rushing back to DC to introduce the gas tax holiday legislation? You know, the one that’ll cost a quarter million jobs. That one.
Hillary Clinton, a woman of the people? What a joke. When is the last time she rode in anything but a limo? 1984? Flown in anything but a government jet? 1992?
JR, you’re proving to be a pretty weak troll. You need some variety in there, buddy.
JR, also, do you ever stop to think why Clinton bashers are a dime a dozen? It’s because there’s a massive glut of them in the market. And Hillary just keeps making more. (Of course she doesn’t understand supply and demand–her gas tax proposal shows us that.)
Larry,if obama had the summer gas tax idea the bias media would have every trucker and soccer mom praising the idea,
the Clinton backers are a dime a dozen,most are rightwingers that don’t have a dog in this race anyway,if Hillary wins Indiana and comes close in N.C. after being down 20 points it’s a miracle,
and did anybody else notice barry obama wearing green eyeshadow today on his tv interviews,i can’t believe the bias media let him come on the air like that,
Larry,as you can see the obama elitist are very worried tonight and might have to cut down on the cafe latte,and hope the rev.wracist keeps his big mouth shut tonight.
JR, that’s some powerful weak troll fu you got there. The significant events are among superdelegates at this point. What you’ll see there is that people are looking at Joe Andrew. And others like Robert Reich, who know the Clintons and have rejected them. Hillary could win in both states tomorrow, but it won’t change the fact that she’s doing it by splitting the party in a way that is hurting the Democrats’ chances this fall. And unless she wins by 75% or better, she’s going to fall far short in pledged delegates. Superdelegates just aren’t going to be willing to overturn that result unless Obama is caught in bed with a live boy or a dead girl.
chicleteeth,you are not looking at the full picture,you can’t just mimic what the bias media says,
i agree with you even though Hillary has won all the big states and with fla.and michigan still not counted this election will be flawed so the superdelegates should
‘do the right thing’ and put the best candidate as the nominee,Hillary will beat mcbush i mean mccain,obama will not.
JR, Hillary is losing support and superdelegates because of compulsive lying and tacit racism. She’s worn out her welcome. Her “surge” is more a function of Rev Wright than anyone lov’in the Ice Queen.
Larry, blog change please. This one is starting to smell.