EXCERPTS:
"President Michele Bachmann has a promise: $2 gas. 'Under President Bachmann you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again,' Bachmann told a crowd Tuesday in South Carolina. 'That will happen.'
"Sure, politicians promise all kinds of things on the campaign trail. But Bachmann, a leading contender for the 2012 Republican nomination, is wading into truly tricky territory.
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"It's certainly true that prices -- now about $3.50 a gallon on average -- have risen since President Obama took office. "The day that the president became president gasoline was $1.79 a gallon," Bachmann said. "Look what it is today."
"Of course, that's not the full story. When Obama took office, the country was mired in a terrible economic contraction. "That was in the 4th inning of the greatest recession of our lifetime," said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service. During recessions, demand for gasoline plummets as trucks pull off the road, companies cut back on travel and laid off workers drive fewer miles.
