Gasoline

Bespoke Investment Group published this chart and comment on their public website the other day:

"{Above} is a chart showing the distance that both gas prices and oil are currently trading from their 2008 highs. As shown, the price of oil is still 22% from its 2008 high, while the price at the pump is just 10% from its high. 

During the huge oil price run-up in 2008, refiners got squeezed as gas prices rose at a slower rate than the price of oil.......(Most consumers didn't realize they were actually getting a relatively good deal when they were paying over $4/gallon back then!) This time around, consumers aren't getting as good of a deal, and it's becoming more and more painful to fill up."

My comment:  It's beginning to feel to me like there is a real possibility that President Obama will be a "One-Termer".  He may catch a break if the Republicans nominate a regional candidate like Mike Huckabee. But for him to have a real chance, the American public is going to have to start seeing noticeable improvement in their own economic reality.  I think he has to next summer to get the economy moving so that most voters don't blame him.  Right now the President is vulnerable to a challenger looking into a camera in the fall 2012 debates and asking the question that President Reagan used to KO President Carter; "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?"  $4.00 and up gasoline doesn't seem to work in his favor.

Link:  Gasoline