Gas price electioneering

Excited about the big drop in gasoline prices?

Don't get too wound up.

At the beginning of the July 4 holiday period in 2006, the average price of gasoline in the United States was $2.873. By the middle of October, as the mid-term elections neared, the national average price of gasoline was $2.219, and prices hit a low of $2.02 in states such as Missouri, that, coincidentally, were states the Republican Party felt it needed to win.

By early December of 2006, a time when gasoline prices historically drop, the national average price of a gallon of gasoline had bounced back to $2.297. The elections were over. The price of gasoline jumped around quite a bit over the next few months, with several reasons cited for the volatility, but we know the trend was up, up, up.

Oil company execs know who provides the special tax breaks at times when they're already pulling in profits at unprecedented levels.

But of course it's all coincidental.