Republicans rush to credit Obama for lower gasoline prices. Not

A year's worth of average gasoline prices nationwide. (gasbuddy.com) If your memory is as short as Republicans would like it to be, then you probably have forgotten what they were saying three months ago when gasoline prices were steeply rising. Rebecca Weber has posted a reminder that Republicans put the blame directly on Barack Obama:

Mitt Romney, March 18, 2012: 'He gets full credit or blame for what's happened in this economy, and what's happened to gasoline prices under his watch, and what's happened to our schools, and what's happened to our military forces. All these things are his responsibility while he's president.'

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), April 6, 2012:'The president's own policies to date have made matters worse and driven up gas prices.'

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Feb. 28 2012: 'This President will go to any length to drive up gas prices and pave the way for his ideological agenda.'

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), March 13, 2012: Obama is 'fully responsible for what the American public is paying for gasoline.

You don't have to go far to find plenty of others making similar comments.

Here, for instance, is Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus in a FoxNews op-ed on Feb. 29:

For three years, the president has done nothing meaningful to keep energy prices low, and now that Americans are feeling the pain at the pump, they are rightfully going to hold him accountable.

The nationwide average for a gallon of regular gasoline has fallen 53 cents since its peak on April 5. At that rate, the price will be below $3 a gallon by Labor Day. It is already below $3 in 18 states. Which might be why the Republicans, so noisy about gas prices in March and April, have gone silent except for a brief flurry saying the lower prices emerged because Obama's policies have wrecked the economy.

We know that oil speculation was part of what drove up the price of gasoline, as did some closed refineries. But with the economies of the European Union and China slowing, oil production in the United States rising and the Saudis upping their production for June (just as they did the previous two months), lower prices were inevitable. Not because there is a dial under the president's desk giving him the power to crank prices up or down at will.

The Republicans know this. They know prices have nothing to do with the Keystone XL pipeline approval or overly strict regulations or anything else the president has some short-term clout over. Blasting him over higher gasoline prices is just politics. As is clamming up when the prices go down. S.O.P. for the GOP.