$3.99 a gallon

Ed Morrissey reports that Obama is getting "hammered" by high gas prices. Welcome to the club. Turns out it's pretty hard, even for experts, to spin a $75 or $100 tank of gas into anything positive. We tend to notice when our wallets are empty and it makes a difference in everything we do.

It seems that Obama’s dismissive advice last week that gas prices are always “spiking up” this time of year didn’t do anything to set minds at ease.  Rapid gas price hikes and the resulting increase in food prices quickly erode buying power in working-class and middle-class households, which means that fewer people will have money for vacations and impulse spending in 2012.  While the jobs reports have been mildly positive the last three months, the manufacturing reports were dismal in January, and the gas price spike is likely to lead to an economic slowdown and an end to those good jobs reports.

See also Freedom's Lighthouse: Major Garrett: Rising Gas Prices Hurting Obama; Strategy to Ridicule GOP on Drilling is Not Working and Beltway Confidential: "there appears to be no strategy to tackle this monster political issue heading into the 2012 elections." (That's not counting their frantic use of the "they want to take away your contraceptives" diversion.)

Gas is $3.99 a gallon at the Shell station in my northern Virginia suburb. I know it's higher in other parts of the country. What are you paying?

Thanks to Michelle Malkin for the Buzzworthy link.
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