Another Example of Why Elections Matter

clipped from www.nytimes.com Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Two dates — two numbers. Read them and weep for what could have, and should have, been. On Sept. 11, 2001, the OPEC basket oil price was $25.50 a barrel. On Nov. 13, 2007, the OPEC basket price was around $90 a barrel. In the wake of 9/11, some of us pleaded for a “patriot tax” on gasoline of $1 or more a gallon to diminish the transfers of wealth we were making to the very countries who were indirectly financing the ideologies of intolerance that were killing Americans and in order to spur innovation in energy efficiency by U.S. manufacturers. But no, George Bush and Dick Cheney had a better idea. And the Democrats went along for the ride. They were all going to let the market work and not let our government shape that market — like OPEC does. If God really did want George W. Bush to be president (as some have contended), He must really hate America. Either that or Islam really is the one, true faith. Either way, it is going to take decades to get over the damage he has done (Bush that is, not God).