With gas prices running high, it is hardly surprising to see candidates for all sorts of offices trying to make the issue work for them, as the Associated Press' James Hannah reports at FoxNews:

With the country's gas prices averaging $3 a gallon, congressional and gubernatorial candidates nationwide are trying to turn pain at the pump into smart politics.

In the Illinois governor's race, Republican hopeful Judy Baar Topinka wants to suspend a portion of the state sales tax on gasoline. In Missouri, Democratic Senate candidate Claire McCaskill is touring the state to promote alternative fuels. Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat, is making rising gas prices and energy independence part of her re-election campaign, featuring them in her first television ad.

In Washington state, Democratic congressional candidate Darcy Burner campaigned with"Gas Pump Man,"a character wearing a red, yellow and black gas pump costume and cape.

Candidates from both parties are paying attention to polls that show people attach the same level of concern to energy issues as they do to terrorism and immigration. About seven of every 10 Americans expect gas price increases to cause them or their families financial hardship over the next six months, and many expect it to be a serious hardship, according to an AP-Ipsos poll taken in early June.

Read it all at the link above.

It is probably the high price of gas which causes people's negative feelings about the economy, despite the fact that the US economy for the eighteen months ending in June was the greatest in human history. Gas is something we use all the time, and even when we don't buy it, we see the price prominently displayed many times every day.

Still, it is a bit silly. We're in a speculative spike for petroleum prices - a speculator's Perfect Storm which began as the US prepared to invade Iraq in 2003, followed by troubles in the oil-producing nations: questions about Iraqi supplies and attacks on its facilities, labor unrest in Nigeria, coup attempt in Venezuela, civil war in Nigeria, Russia nationalizes largest oil company, Chavez puts his cronies in Venezuelan oil industry, Iran nuke program, hurricane damage to Gulf of Mexico platforms and refineries.

Most industry analysts agree that based upon the actual supply and demand figures, oil should be trading in the $35 - $45 range, or about half what it is right now. The bubble will burst at some point, and prices will tumble to a "normal" level very quickly.

Of course, adjusted for inflation, the gas price surge of the early '80s would be about $4 per gallon in today's money, so quit your whining. It would take another 33% hike to equal that level. Not to mention that by the only real standard for comparing prices over time, the number of hours the average worker has to work to buy the commodity, gas remains cheap by historical comparison.

Say, remember the late '90s, when oil fell below $11 a barrel and Clinton convinced the Saudis and Kuwaitis to cut production to boost the price and avert a financial crisis in Russia?

Ah . . . the good ol' days . . .

;-)