Hillary says she is going to go after OPEC...and for her next trick...

[mckeown1128]

Clinton's attacks on oil prices as artificially inflated, Enron-style, keep escalating, and today she appeared to threaten to break up the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

"We’re going to go right at OPEC," she said. "They can no longer be a cartel, a monopoly that get to gether once every couple of months" at a hotel in "some plush place in the world" to set prices, she told a crowd a volunteer fire house in Merillville.

It's a potent message, like the attack on "Wall Street money grubbers," with deep roots in American politics. It's also very hard to figure out what exactly she means by the threat to break OPEC.


http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0508/Clinton_OPEC_can_no_longer_be_a_cartel.html#comments



Seriously... I would be more apt to believe her if she said she was going to fly up and personally attack any meteor heading toward the earth.

[babylonsister]

1. Is there anything she won't say? She's SO transparent. nt

[BuyingThyme]

The next thing, she'll be calling for election-year tax cuts on gasoline.

[Ichingcarpenter]

Bush In 2000

Bush In 2000:


Bush Blamed Clinton Administration For High Gas Prices; Promised "Immediate Relief"
By Using His "Capital" With Saudis And Kuwaitis.

"Campaigning for president in a state particularly hard-hit by high gasoline prices, Texas Gov. George W. Bush on Tuesday blamed the nation's predicament on the Clinton administration, which he said is operating without an energy policy.

"This is an administration that is hoping the issue goes away,
' Bush said. ... 'The vice president seems to forget who's been in office for seven years,' Bush said.



Bush in 2000:

U.S. Needs To "Jawbone" OPEC Members. "What I think the president ought to do is
he ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say we expect you to open your spigots.
..And the president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price."

[DangerDave921]

2. I want free cable

Can she get me that? And maybe if she's not too busy, she could magically make me lose 20 pounds.

[kenny blankenship]

3. Maybe she'll obliterate OPEC?

Sounds like she's alluding to something more serious & forceful than George W. Bush's "jawboning" OPEC's price down.

Of course there is always an outside chance that this talk is just more high octane bullshit on her part. Just a slight chance!

[Vinca]

4. Did she happen to mention how she plans to take on OPEC?

They are, after all, the ones with the oil.

[Hugabear]

6. I'm guessing she plans to give them a very stern talking-to

Other than that, what else can she really do?

I suppose she could fart in their general direction...

[dansolo]

35. She'll call them elitists

That should do it.

[sniffa]

12. We have an army over there

We will obliterate their oil.

[RC]

27. Their oil? I thought that was our oil and we were just paying them

to store it for us till we needed it.

[depakid]

14. She'd file suit before the WTO for anti-competitive behaviour.

Quick summary of the 3 candidates & petrol prices from The Economist:

http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11293932

A bit more from the Guardian:

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/richard_adams/2008/05/the_price_of_gas.html

[anigbrowl]

19. Too late: Economists are dead to her now.

I'd be cautious quoting the Economist...they haven't been kind to her on her proposed interest rate freeze, among other things.

[depakid]

21. The Economist is pretty much a "centrist" UK publication

Often too neoliberal for my taste, but overall, a decent and usually credible newsmag.

[anigbrowl]

31. I know, I've been a subscriber for a decade.

[mckeown1128]

20. "anti-competitive behavior" ... they have ALL the oil....

who are they keeping from "competing?"

Seriously what is the end game... the problem isn't that OPEC isn't drilling enough. The problem is that WE are USING too much.


But, don't let reality dictate your spinning.

[depakid]

22. Personally, I'm interested in complex enegy issues- not manichean thinking

and yes, OPEC is and has been a one of many problems over the past 25 years- an a case can certainly be made against the cartel at the WTO.

Bottom line is that none of the candidates has a responsible energy policy- though one thing I'll say for Hillary is that, unlike Obama- she didn't vote for Bush's insane bill.

[mckeown1128]

24. 1 our consumption of oil NOT OPECs withholding oil...

has been the problem.

2. I think you need to check out this site instead of parroting Hillary talking points about Obama and Bush's bill:

http://factcheck.barackobama.com/factcheck/2008/01/08/fact_check_obamas_strong_recor.php



Obama Helped Lead Efforts To Pass Amendments That Improved The Bill's Renewable Energy Provisions And Was Singled Out For His Work As A Negotiator On The Energy Bill's Ethanol Provisions. In 2005, Obama passed amendments to the 2005 Energy Policy Act which would double the amount of ethanol used in our gasoline supply by 2012 (from 2 billion to 8 billion gallons); provide a tax credit for the retail purchase of E-85 fuel; and established an applied research program to improve technologies for the commercialization of a combination hybrid/flexible fuel vehicle; or a plug-in hybrid/flexible fuel vehicle.


uhh...sounds to me like he figured that the republican lead congress would continue to push crappy republican legislation... so instead of sitting around and doing nothing by voting no and complaining. He took charge and changed the law for the better.(as much as can be done with the republicans in charge)

Hmm.. sounds like leadership.

(an example: Hillary and the IWR. Hillary claims that she voted for the IWR thinking that the inspectors would get to do their job...yet she voted against the amendment that would have made it a requirement.)

[depakid]

28. You think pushing corn based ethanol is a good idea and shows "leadership?"

:shrug:

Seems to me, some homework might be in order. DU's Energy and Environment forum might be a good place to start....

[mckeown1128]

29. the good thing about ethanol is it makes us less dependent on

other's for our energy needs...

[depakid]

37. You seem sincere

So I would ask again that you have another look and consider, for lack of better words- the trade offs.

[Hola]

25. Iran

She plans to obliterate Iran, an important member of OPEC. That will ofocurse result in an immediate reduction in oil prices.

[PoliticalAmazon]

32. The same magic wand she will use to make oil windfall profits disappear. n/t

[Egnever]

34. she will run for the head of opec and even though she has no chance will continue to annoy them

untill they relent and break up.

[bicentennial_baby]

5. She really has lost it...

:crazy:

[LSparkle]

7. And they will listen to her ... WHY?

She can rant and threaten all she wants, but they're not going to
listen to her. She presumes that she can force the oil companies
to pass along savings from the gas tax holiday, that she can crack
some heads at OPEC and MAKE them lower oil prices ... Talk about
delusional self-importance!

[cjsmom44]

8. RE; wow she has really lost it

This woman will be dragged out in a straight-jacket

She has become totally delusional

Maybe she will nuke them too...

Even the Illustrious Ben Smith seems baffled

God....Help us

[sniffa]

9. HA!

:rofl:

Isn't the price of oil supposed to drop some ridiculous amount the night of her inauguration too?

Here's the first rec.

[jordi_fanclub]

10. As BUSH, another candidate to LAUGHING-STOCK-OF-THE-WORLD!!!

[grantcart]

11. after she withdraws from the campaign she will be getting an invitation

to the traditional Saudi 'out of power' conciliation lunch where future lecture schedules and fees will be discussed.

[last1standing]

13. Is she going to "jawbone" them down like her mentor?

You know, the guy still in the white house.

Every day she gets worse and worse with her pandering and lying. Can one person tell me what she can do as president to break up OPEC? Hell, she couldn't even get them to move out of their "plush" hotels to downgrade to a Holiday Inn.

This is just more lying from an inveterate liar.

She has honestly come to disgust me.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. Can walking on water be far behind? She's already promised to raise the dead.

But, her campaign for ultimate bosshood remains dormant.

[RichardRay]

16. It will help a lot when she gets a U.S. court to issue an injunction

against OPEC based on anti-trust legislation. We all know that the mandate of US law carries such great weight in the Middle East.

:eyes:

[bicentennial_baby]

17. She says she'll go to the WTO, but...

Hmmm, I don't see that panning out.

[Lerkfish]

18. wtf? the essence of a cartel is a cooperative grouping.

someone outside the cartel cannot change it from the outside.

wow, some heavy duty looney there.

[juno jones]

23. Hmmmm

"We’re going to go right at OPEC," she said. "They can no longer be a cartel, a monopoly that get to gether once every couple of months" at a hotel in "some plush place in the world" to set prices, she told a crowd a volunteer fire house in Merillville.

Riiiight Hillary, just like the G8, the WTO, or perhaps even the Bilderbergers??????? Gonna dismantle those bastions of elitism as well? Somehow I doubt it

[barack the house]

26. OPEC is an entity beyond America's control unless she pans to obliterate all nations within it....

This is the old politics upseting other nations and oil prices, make way for the new.

[BlooInBloo]

33. If only that were a joke.

[Lucky 13]

30. Wow. Good luck with all that.

:wtf:

[pdxmom]

36. Good move. We're already suffering under the high gas prices. Now

piss off the people who control the oil spigots.

Diplomatic she is not.