Higher gas prices cloud Obama's re-election hopes

WASHINGTON (AP) — Soaring gasoline prices are threatening to undercut President Barack Obama's re-election prospects and offering Republicans an easy target. With prices pushing $4 a gallon and threatening to go even higher, Obama sought Thursday to confront rising public anxiety and strike back at his GOP critics.

"Only in politics do people root for bad news, do they greet bad news so enthusiastically," Obama said of Republicans. "You pay more; they're licking their chops."

Obama said dismissively that all the Republicans can talk about is more drilling — "a bumper sticker ... a strategy to get politicians through an election" — when the nation's energy challenges demand much more. In a speech in Miami, he promoted the expansion of domestic oil and gas exploration but also the development of new forms of energy.

For all the political claims, economists say there's not much a president of either party can do about gasoline prices. Certainly not in the short term. But it's clear that people are concerned — a new Associated Press-GfK poll says seven in 10 find the issue deeply important — so it's sure to be a political issue through the summer.

"Right now, we're experiencing yet another painful reminder of why developing new energy is so critical to our future," the president said. At an average of $3.58 a gallon, prices are already up 25 cents since Jan. 1, and experts say they could reach a record $4.25 a gallon by Memorial Day.

Those higher prices could hurt consumer spending and unravel some of the recent improvements in the economy. And they could also be a daily reminder to voters to question Obama's contention that he's making the nation — and them — more secure.

While motorists are already starting to complain, many economists see the $4-a-gallon mark as a breaking point above which the economy starts to suffer real pain. Analysts estimate that every one-cent increase is roughly a $1.4 billon drain on the economy.

Obama's Republican challengers aren't letting it all slide by. They have stepped up their attacks on his energy policies, including his rejection last month of a pipeline to carry oil from Canada to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. And they're full of promises.

"I've developed a program for American energy so no future president will ever bow to a Saudi king again, and so every American can look forward to $2.50-a-gallon gasoline," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said in the Wednesday night GOP debate in Mesa, Ariz. He calls his strategy "Drill Here, Drill Now."

At the same event, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania — who has warned of $5-a-gallon gas — asserted that "we have a lot of troubles around the world, as you see the Middle East in flames and what's going on in this country with gas prices and the economy." And former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney suggested that even more troubling than rising gasoline prices was Iranian President Mahmoud "Ahmadinejad with nuclear weapons."

In his speech at the University of Miami, Obama sought to draw a contrast with his GOP challengers and made a pointed reference to what he suggested was Republican glee at rising gas prices.

"And you can bet that since it's an election year, they're already dusting off their three-point plans for $2 gas," Obama said. "I'll save you the suspense. Step one is drill, step two is drill, and step three is keep drilling. .. We've heard the same thing for 30 years. Well, the American people aren't stupid."

Addressing the rising public anxiety, Obama said, "There are no quick fixes to this problem, and you know we can't just drill our way to lower gas prices." Anyone suggesting otherwise was not being honest, he said.

Still, Obama said he had ordered his administration to search for every possible area to help consumers in the coming months. He said his administration's "all-of-the-above strategy," one that includes oil, gas, wind and solar power, is the "only real solution" to the nation's energy challenges.

Gingrich quickly dismissed Obama's energy speech as "excuses and fantasies."

Presidents often get blamed for rising gas prices, but there's not much they can do about them. The current increases at the pump have been driven by tensions in Iran and by higher demand in the U.S. as well as in China, India and other quickly growing nations.

"Obviously, people go to the pump all the time, so it's something that really hits home with the voters," said Fred Greenstein, a Princeton University professor emeritus of politics. "It's an easy issue to talk about, and not an easy issue to accomplish very much on."

In his Miami remarks, Obama said that despite political criticism of his policies "America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. He also noted that, for the first time in 30 years, the United States is now exporting more petroleum products than it imports.

But Jack Gerard, the president of the American Petroleum Institute, challenged Obama's apparent effort to take credit.

"While oil production is up, the increase relates almost entirely to investment and leasing decisions made before, sometimes long before, this administration came into office," Gerard said. "The increase is also due to oil and gas development on private and state lands over which the administration has little or no control at all."

Though Obama's approval rating on the economy has climbed, his negative rating on handling gas prices is stagnant. Just 39 percent approve of what he's doing there, and 58 percent disapprove, according to the new AP-GFK survey.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said gasoline prices are likely to keep rising as the summer driving season approaches. "Increasingly, it's becoming the biggest threat to the economy," he said. "And there is little presidents can do to influence gasoline prices in the near term."

Some lawmakers have called for Obama to release oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

"Rising gas prices could be the difference between an economy that continues to recover and an economy that sinks back into recession," said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., among those calling for such a move.

The emergency reserve is kept in salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana and contains about 700 million barrels of oil. There are 42 gallons in each barrel. Last year, as prices rose, Obama authorized the sale of 30 million barrels of oil from the reserve.

However, economists suggest that tapping the reserve to increase the amount of oil on the market has only a modest and temporary effect on gas prices.

Will Obama take that step? White House spokesman Jay Carney says, "We never take options off the table."

Obama may just have to get used to the criticism, because it probably isn't going away anytime soon, said James Thurber, an American University political science professor. "Republicans will hit him with anything that comes up which makes him look bad," he said.

Still, as long as the economy seems to keep improving, Obama probably won't be hurt too much by the attacks "unless gas goes over $5 a gallon," Thurber said.

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Santorum questions Obama's 'world view,' not faith

CUMMING, Ga. (AP) — Rick Santorum on Sunday condemned what he called President Barack Obama's world view that "elevates the Earth above man," discouraging increased use of natural resources.

The GOP presidential candidate also slammed Obama's health care overhaul for requiring insurers to pay for prenatal tests that, Santorum said, will encourage more abortions.

A day after telling an Ohio audience that Obama's agenda is based on "some phony theology, not a theology based on the Bible," Santorum said he wasn't criticizing the president's Christianity.

"I've repeatedly said I don't question the president's faith. I've repeatedly said that I believe the president's Christian," Santorum told CBS' "Face the Nation."

"I am talking about his world view, and the way he approaches problems in this country. I think they're different than how most people do in America," he said in the broadcast interview.

The former Pennsylvania senator said Obama's environmental policies promote ideas of "radical environmentalists," who, Santorum argues, oppose greater use of the country's natural resources because they believe "man is here to serve the Earth." He said that was the reference he was making Saturday in his Ohio campaign appearance when he denounced a "phony theology."

When pressed by reporters after he made the initial remark, however, Santorum made no mention of the president's environmental policies. Instead, he suggested that Obama practices one of the "different stripes of Christianity."

Santorum walked back those comments on CBS Sunday morning.

But later in the day, he again criticized Obama's "theology" — with no reference to his environmental policies — while speaking to more than 2,000 supporters gathered at a suburban Atlanta megachurch.

The president is "trampling on a constitutional right," Santorum said of the Obama administration's recent decision to allow employees of religious schools and hospitals to have birth control covered by their insurance policies.

"It is imposing his ideology on a group of people expressing their theology, their moral code," Santorum told those gathered in the First Redeemer Church, a megachurch that hosted former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee four years ago.

Obama's campaign said Santorum's initial remarks were another attack on the president's faith by Republican rivals in a nominating contest that has grown increasingly bitter and negative.

"It's just time to get rid of this mindset in our politics that, if we disagree, we have to question character and faith," said Robert Gibbs, Obama's former press secretary, on ABC's "This Week."

"Those days have long passed in our politics. Our problems and our challenges are far too great," Gibbs said.

Santorum said his claim that Obama's health care overhaul encourages abortions stems from the requirement for insurance companies to pay for prenatal testing, which he said will result in more pregnant women having more procedures. He specified amniocentesis, a procedure that can identify physical problems in the unborn.

"The bottom line is a lot of prenatal tests are done to identify deformities in utero and the customary procedure is to encourage abortion," he said.

A doctor recommended abortion when a sonogram discovered health problems for Santorum's youngest daughter, who was born three years ago with a genetic condition known as Trisomy 18, which typically proves fatal. She has lived longer than most children born with the condition.

"This is typical," Santorum said. "This is what goes on in medical rooms around the country."

He said he's critical of the mandate in Obama's health care plan that insurers must pay for the tests, not of prenatal testing in general.

"There are all sorts of prenatal testing which should be provided free. I have no problem with that if the insurance companies want to. I'm not for any of these things to be forced," Santorum said.

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Obama's slogan: looking to replace Hope and Change

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Winning The Future. Greater Together. We Don't Quit.

They may not be official but those are all phrases that could in one form or another be candidates to become President Barack Obama's re-election slogan.

Advisers say a fresh slogan to replace the winning "Change we can believe in" mantra of 2008, is unlikely to appear before Obama knows who his Republican opponent will be and starts big campaign travel swings, likely in the spring or summer.

His campaign posters now say simply, "Obama 2012."

But Obama's surrogates have roadtested some slogans in recent months, including "Winning The Future," which the White House used to promote its budget, and "Greater Together," which the campaign has used to brand its youth outreach effort.

A new tagline will have to reflect a new reality.

Obama is no longer a Washington outsider, unemployment is falling but still high, and economic insecurity for many voters is a huge concern that a simple slogan cannot overcome.

Obama is aware of that difficulty. He still refers to his old slogan at campaign fundraisers, emphasizing the "change" he has achieved, while dropping lines that could be test runs for a pitch to convince voters to give him another term.

"When you think about change that we can believe in, as hard as these last three years have been, don't underestimate the changes we've made," Obama said at a fundraiser in California this week.

"Inspiration is wonderful, nice speeches are wonderful, pretty posters, that's great. But what's required at the end of the day to create the kind of country we want is stick-to-it-ness. It's determination. It's saying, 'We don't quit.'"

In his State of the Union address last month, the president also played up the issue of economic fairness, which branding experts said could encapsulate his 2012 pitch.

"Owning 'fairness' is a powerful idea, but getting that idea communicated in a clear, sticky way is very hard," said Allen Adamson, managing director of marketing firm Landor Associates.

"Telling that story is more difficult than telling a 'change' story because you have to define fairness for who, and what's unfair, and why is fairness important. Change was a brutally simple idea."

After three years of governing - fulfilling some promises and breaking others - the word "change" is a tricky brand for the president to espouse.

But Obama's advisers say his philosophies are still the same, even if the words associated with them from 2008 are not part of this year's campaign tagline.

"This election is also about hope and about change. That doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be in the slogan," said David Axelrod, Obama's message guru and senior campaign strategist.

"But the president has a very hopeful, optimistic view about this country, even with all the challenges we have, and is working toward that."

LOOKING FOR SUCCESS

The importance of a crisp message is not lost on Obama's team. Political branding has been critical to defining and winning U.S. presidential elections since as far back as 1840 when the William Henry Harrison-John Tyler ticket rode to victory with the slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler too."

Not all slogans clicked with voters.

Former Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic candidate who lost to George W. Bush in 2000, did not make waves with "People Not The Powerful" or "I Will Fight For You."

Senator John McCain, Obama's Republican challenger in 2008, captured his personal story with "Country First" but did not touch the public in the way his better-branded opponent did.

Advertising executives cited Republican President Ronald Reagan's "Morning again in America" message in 1984 as a brand that resonated - and for an incumbent president, no less.

"(That) communicated this notion that Reagan had declared success and now it was time to celebrate a new day in America and give Reagan four more years to complete the task," said Denis Riney, a senior partner with Brandlogic, a firm that advises large corporations.

"Obama could benefit from something in a similar vein."

Republican candidates are trying to go with simple branding ideas too, and most of them have adopted themes that suggest the United States under Obama is on the wrong track.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney uses "Believe in America," former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich has "Rebuilding the American Dream" plastered on his bus, and U.S. Representative Ron Paul proposes to "Restore America Now."

Branding experts said it was smart for Obama to keep his slogan under wraps until his opponent was clear. Targeting a catchphrase to contrast with Romney could be different from aiming one at former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, for example. Santorum is leading among Republicans in some national polls.

Axelrod, who would not tip his hand on what Obama's slogan would be, said the message from all the Republicans was different from that of the Democratic White House occupant.

"I listen to these Republicans speak and they have such a dark, grinding kind of view of this country," he said.

"We have a lot of strengths in this country. We've got a lot of challenges, but we've also got a lot of strengths, and we're going to work our way through this moment. But that will require change, and those changes are changes that we have to continue."

It may not be catchy, but "changes that we have to continue" may at least be a start.

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