With unemployment and the economy improving, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has turned to attacking President Barack Obama on the price of gas.
At a campaign event in Suwanee, Georgia, the former House Speaker told supporters that he would bring back cheaper gas because "you can't put a gun rack on a Volt."
"There is no reason not to believe that we couldn't stabilize with American production by drowning demand in supply the old-fashioned, free market way," he explained. "There's not reason we couldn't have a stable price around $2 or $2.50 [per gallon]."
In an interview on Sunday, Fox News host Chris noted that if Gingrich attempted to increase oil production in the U.S., OPEC would decrease production to keep international energy prices high.
"You can't guarantee $2.50 a gallon," Wallace explained.
"You can't guarantee anything," Gingrich agreed. "But you can guarantee that under the Obama plan, there's going to be less American production, higher prices."
(ADDENDUM, Nicole:) Newt's argument highlights both the strength of the GOP's messaging and the failure of most Americans to understand basic economics. We could devastate every single ecologically-pristine area within the US for new oil sources and not one drop of it will necessarily go to the US. We have no nationalized oil company; that oil goes onto the open market, where the price will be determined by demand. And as Wallace points out --and for which Gingrich has no real answer-- OPEC will decrease the availability of petroleum to keep the prices high.
