Survey: Obama's ratings drop as gas price soar

[Teh One Who Knocks]

NewsCore


http://i.imgur.com/4tj71.jpg

WASHINGTON – A majority of Americans disapprove of the way President Barack Obama is handling the economy -- with a record number who "disapprove strongly" -- amid soaring gas prices and an uncertain fiscal future, a new Washington Post-ABC News survey out Monday found.

The poll found that 50 percent of those surveyed strongly disapprove of Obama's economic performance -- the highest in the poll's history. A total of 59 percent gave the president negative marks on the economy.

With rising gas prices hitting Americans at the pump, 65 percent said they found Obama's handling of the issue unsatisfactory. Of that number, 52 percent were said to "disapprove strongly" and only 14 percent "approve strongly" of Obama's performance on gas prices.

However, it appeared that the responses could have been based in part on political ideology, with Democrats less likely than Republicans to say that gas prices have taken a toll on their families, the study found.

The president also fared poorly on other issues. Sixty-three percent of Americans gave him negative marks on the country's budget deficit, while just 16 percent strongly approved of his work in that area. Asked about the White House's energy policy, 48 percent disapproved with Obama's performance.

Obama's handling of foreign policy, and specifically the war in Afghanistan, was almost evenly split between those who approved and disapproved -- 46 percent approved while 47 percent disapproved.

Regarding the president's overall job performance, 50 percent said they were unhappy with Obama and 39 percent strongly disapproved of his performance, while just 28 percent strongly agreed that he was doing a good job.

Asked who they would vote for if the presidential election were held today, 47 percent said they would vote for Obama if his opponent was former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney -- but he would not be re-elected as 49 percent threw their support behind Romney.

Pitted against former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Obama received 49 percent to Santorum's 46 percent.

The telephone survey -- conducted from Wednesday to Saturday among 1,003 adults nationwide -- came as the Labor Department's employment report Friday showed that the US economy added 227,000 jobs in February, continuing an upward trend.

The survey had a margin of error of four percentage points.

[FBD]

The TV cant make you ignore the gas prices, but it can help make you ignore scads of other evidence :razz: I mean are ANY of his documents real?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHAM3hRI8_Y

[perrhaps]

The TV cant make you ignore the gas prices, but it can help make you ignore scads of other evidence :razz: I mean are ANY of his documents real?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHAM3hRI8_Y

Please don't snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

[perrhaps]

Turning back to the topic of this thread, Americans don't appreciate being basically chastised by Obama for being upset about gasoline prices. His smugness in this and other areas may still turn out to be his Achilles heel.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

The TV cant make you ignore the gas prices, but it can help make you ignore scads of other evidence :razz: I mean are ANY of his documents real?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHAM3hRI8_Y

:tinfoil:

[Arkady Renko]

:tinfoil:

the internet has taken crackpot-ism to an entirely new level.

[FBD]

:lol: Yup, the TV has made questioning the integrity of Dear Leader (or any of the forgeries with his name on it) rather passe, hasnt it?

[Teh One Who Knocks]

:lol: Yup, the TV has made questioning the integrity of Dear Leader (or any of the forgeries with his name on it) rather passe, hasnt it?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqUa_G1h3pw

[Acid Trip]

:lol: Yup, the TV has made questioning the integrity of Dear Leader (or any of the forgeries with his name on it) rather passe, hasnt it?

Reagan said it best. "Trust but verify."

[Arkady Renko]

Reagan said it best. "Trust but verify."

actually, Reagan borrowed that line from Lenin.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Reagan said it best. "Trust but verify."

Sorry, but anyone still grasping at the "birth certificate et al" crap is just a wee bit :nuts:

[Acid Trip]

actually, Reagan borrowed that line from Lenin.

I never said he was the first person to say it, only that he said it best.

[Arkady Renko]

you do notice the irony though?

[Acid Trip]

you do notice the irony though?

It's more ironic than an Alanis Morissett CD stuck on repeat.

[FBD]

Sorry, but anyone still grasping at the "birth certificate et al" crap is just a wee bit :nuts:

:lol: I think Obama's citizenship is...passable, admissible - so I'm not really saying "Obama is ineligible to be resident of the white house." But that doesnt explain the forgeries, nor the fact that he was in college as a foreign student. Every bit of this fucker's past is just downright shady. This stuff doesnt bug you...even a bit?

[KevinD]

Back on topic: here another reason gas is so high...Check out the taxes on each gallon. I remember when this was posted on the pump, but the tax info mysteriously dissapeared a few years ago here.

BTW, this shows all states, not just Texas.

http://www.texasgasprices.com/tax_info.aspx

[Acid Trip]

Back on topic: here another reason gas is so high...Check out the taxes on each gallon. I remember when this was posted on the pump, but the tax info mysteriously dissapeared a few years ago here.

BTW, this shows all states, not just Texas.

http://www.texasgasprices.com/tax_info.aspx

You should see how much tax European countries add. It makes our gasoline tax look tame in comparison. Here is England (per liter).

http://i.imgur.com/lljzj.png

Fuel Duty

In the UK we apply a fuel duty which is essentially an additional tax that is added to the price of petrol before it is sold. This duty extends to all Hydrocarbon fuels such as petrol, diesel, biodiesel and LPG’s that are sold for use in cars and makes up a significant proportion of the price we pay for fuel.

As this duty is applied to the price of fuel before VAT, any change to the level of duty will also have an affect on the amount of VAT you pay. When the government announced it’s budget this year (March 2011) the rate of fuel duty was reduced by 1p to try and stabilise the price of fuel which is 5p less than it would have been with inflation plus the planned 1p rise. To compensate for the reduced duty rate the government has increased the tax for oil companies by up to as much as 32%.

Product

The second largest portion of the cost of fuel goes to the companies who supply the crude oil and those who refine it into fuel products like petrol and diesel. Incidentally the cost of refining diesel is substantially higher than that of petrol which, along with VAT makes the price you pay for diesel higher.

VAT

The petrol you buy at the pumps is subject to VAT which is another addition to the cost of all consumer fuels. The introduction of a new VAT rate of 20% at the start of 2011 saw the price of petrol rise further still.

[KevinD]

No doubt other countries pay a higher percentile in Taxes (all taxes) than we do. That's one of the reasons some are rabidly anti European. The oil companies make bank on every gallon, to the tune of 60% or so of the price you pay. I've actually been studying this lately, and the federal tax rate hasn't really changed much since 93. The percentage that the oil companies are getting has increased dramatically. Why is open to discussion.

[Arkady Renko]

exactly, the tax burden is a lot higher in most european countries. We pay about 1.60 € for a litre of 95 right now and 1.45 for a litre of diesel, that would be 8 $ for a gallon of gas and 7.50 for the gallon of diesel.

[Acid Trip]

exactly, the tax burden is a lot higher in most european countries. We pay about 1.60 € for a litre of 95 right now and 1.45 for a litre of diesel, that would be 8 $ for a gallon of gas and 7.50 for the gallon of diesel.

Does 95 mean 95 octane gas? IE Super Duper Premium?

[Arkady Renko]

yeah, 95 octane, but that's the standard over here ("super" in german), on top of that they sell 98 octane as "super plus" and in the case of Shell "V Power Racing 100" and, I kid you not, the german brach of BP sell "superultimate 102" as a gimmick.

plain old 91 has been pretty much phased out, you have to drive around quite a bit to find it nowadays. Don't even try to make sense of that...

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Damn, all we have in Colorado is 85, 87, and 89 octane

[Muddy]

Lowest is 87 here, our premium is 93.

[Acid Trip]

Ours are usually 87, 89, and 91 (93 at some places).

I was confused as to how gas was costing more than diesel but if it's that high of an octane it makes sense.

[Arkady Renko]

Lowest is 87 here, our premium is 93.


Ours are usually 87, 89, and 91 (93 at some places).

I was confused as to how gas was costing more than diesel but if it's that high of an octane it makes sense.

I think the high octane stuff is a gimmick, really. Cause who actually needs that?

As for diesel, in germany the tax rate for diesl is about 15 cents per litre less than it is for gas. It's supposed to help professionals and people who have a long commute because these folks tend to drive diesel cars and vans here.

In real life, car makers syphon off most of that money by selling cars with diesel engines at a premium of a few thousand euros even though they cost the same to make. Hooray for useless subsidies and tax loopholes...

[FBD]

when you have a high performance engine, it makes a *big* fkn difference. truuuust me ;)

[Arkady Renko]

sure, I'll gladly believe that, but I reckon 99% of car traffic over here is urban commute or highway/autobahn at no more than 90 mph, so the large majority of drivers will never get into a situation where they actually benefit from the high energy content. If you bear in mind that almost everyone keeps bitching about high gas prices, that's kinda ridiculous

[KevinD]

May I direct your attention here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating

I am on several automotive type forums, and it continually astounds me how much mis-information there is about octane ratings.

For one thing, you can't compare European and US octane ratings, as they are calculated differently.
The biggest mis-information I run across is that a higher octane fuel gives more power. This simply isn't so. It doesn't add more oxygen, it doesn't give more power. It DOES however allow higher compression without detonation (bad, really bad) thus allowing more power to be made (if compression increases).

[KevinD]

I have two cars that both require 91 or better octane (US rating) , one is factory turbo, the other is factory high compression. Both of them will run fine at light loads (cruising) on even 87 octane (I use 87 on road trips) but under high load, they will start detonating with 87. So when I am going to be primarily stop and go driving or racing, in goes the 91-93.

Another misconception about octane is that it gives higher fuel economy. I've seen many lab type and real world tests of this, and there is no evidence to back it up.