That was fast. The early summer drop in gas prices, welcomed with relief inside the White House, has stopped and now the cost of fueling up for that summer road trip is up nationally by 6-cents in just a week.
Worse for the president’s campaign: In 10 of 12 key swing states receiving most of the attention from President Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney, the price of regular gas has surged. And the biggest price increases have come in states Obama feels he must win to keep control of the White House: Florida, Ohio, and Virginia.
“The guy in charge always gets blamed,” pollster John Zogby told Secrets. “We will have to see if the trend continues or not to determine how much this really hurts the president,” he added.
Gas prices have been a nagging problem for Obama and his re-election campaign. When they surge, the White House has attacked refining companies for price gouging while Republicans have hit the administration for failing to promote home-grown gas production. When prices drop, both sides go quiet.
It is unclear where gas prices are heading, though pollsters say a sustained increase would undermine the president’s re-election.
But right now it’s where the increases are hitting that could hurt his campaign. Of the 12 key swing states the two candidates are battling in, prices have continued to drop only in Nevada and Colorado. But in the 10 others, prices have taken a one-week jump ranging from 2-cents to 19-cents: Florida is up 9-cents, Iowa 4-cents, Michigan 3-cents, New Hampshire 2-cents, New Mexico 7-cents, North Carolina 5-cents, Ohio 19-cents, Pennsylvania 5-cents, Virginia 8-cents, and Wisconsin 5-cents.
