Boston Globe, April 20, 2004:
The latest inside account of the Bush administration has provided fresh fodder for John F. Kerry’s campaign, with the presumptive Democratic nominee yesterday condemning the president for reportedly allowing the Saudis to maintain high gasoline prices until just before the fall election, when they would be cut to boost the US economy.
Washington Post, May 19, 2004:
Sen. John F. Kerry attacked President Bush on Tuesday for failing to take action to prevent a steep rise in gasoline prices, which hit an average of $2 a gallon this week, and for supporting policies that have enhanced corporations and wealthy Americans at the expense of middle-class families.

Let me see if I understand this. If gasoline prices go down before the election in November, it will be because Bush cut a deal with his Saudi friends in order to win the election. If prices remain high, it’s Bush’s fault because he wants to make his oil business friends even richer. So either way, Bush is the bad guy, and Kerry would propose, what?
Kerry outlined several steps that he said would help hold down gasoline prices, including diverting oil going into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and said the president has failed to do anything serious to stem the price rise.

Of course, we should deplete our emergency supplies of oil because the world is now a safe place, and we don’t need those old “strategic reserves” anyway–or rather, we need them now to bring down gasoline priices for the summer. And Kerry wants me to vote for him for president?