JohnH wrote:

How we do jump to conclusions!

I made no political statement of any kind.

However, if some liberal person decided to climb my frame for posting a
"rosey" report on the health of the economy and therefore promoting or
defending the current administration- he or she would have just as much
basis to call this a pro-Bush political post as you and JimH have to
say it was an anti-Bush political post.

Fact is, it wasn't a political post.

Now, one could turn it into a political post by noting that John Snow's
old futures trading firm
probably contributed 50-cent to last summer's run up in fuel prices by
buying up oil futures at a lot of crazy prices at the same time the
government was filling the strategic reserve. That same point would
continue with the observation that selling those same futures, at the
same time the government is releasing crude from the strategic reserve,
makes a 50-cent difference in the other direction- or a swing of about
a buck a gallon.

OR! To Be Entirely Fair!...............

One could turn it into a political post by noting that Bush's economic
policies have been so beneficial to the US that despite staggering
prices at the fuel pump, less-than-encouraging news on the Iraq and
Afghanistan foreign policy initiatives, rising interest rates,
stabilized or falling home prices, etc etc etc......people still have
enough throw away money to go out and buy a new boat.

So, it wasn't a political post. If it had been, you have no evidence,
(within that specific post), which side of the argument I would have
championed. (I'll concede that my politics are probably well enough
known that you could make a safe and educated guess).

So, my conservative friends, please consider that incidental remark
something less than the
"meat" of the post and rejoice that even a person with my particular
political perspective knows a robust economy (at least in this region)
when he sees one. If you want to give credit for that economy to the
currently sitting president and his congressional majority, that's OK
with me; heck, I once heard about a guy who fell into an outhouse and
found a Rolex. :-)