The Wheels On the Bus Go Thump-Thump-Thump

Check out Don Surber's photo essay of the various souls who now reside under Obama's bus.

Obama Known by the Company He Keeps

With tax cheats Tim Geithner and Tom Dasche in or on their way to cabinet positions, Don Surber looks at some of the other associations of the man in the White House:

Let us review the list of people who belong in jail he has hung out with over the years: William Ayers. Rod Blagojevich. Tony Rezko. Timothy Geithner. Tom Daschle.

The rest of Obama’s cast of imbeciles: Arne Duncan whose 7 years as Chicago schools CEO was highlighted by worsening test scores and no-bid cappuccino machines.

20 years with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. I give Obama credit. He titled his book from the “Audacity of Hope” sermon and not the “God Damn America” sermon.

Nadhmi Auchi, the Iraqi-born billionaire who loaned Obama the money for their $3 million mansion they got at half price courtesy of Rezko.

Bill Richardson, his second choice as commerce secretary, had to withdraw because of a federal corruption investigation of his administration as governor of New Mexico.

Penny Pritzker, his first choice at commerce, who was chairman of a bank that the FDIC had to take over due to mismanagement. Her family agreed to shell out $460 million over a 15-year period to cover some of the losses from that fiasco.

Small wonder that Obama has to look outside the Democratic Party for a commerce secretary as Republican Sen. Judd Gregg is rumored to be in line for the job.

It is sort of like Bill Clinton picking the childless Janet Reno as attorney general after his first 2 picks were embroiled in nanny controversies.

Eric Holder was appointed attorney general despite his role in pardoning terrorists in a votes-for-pardon scam and his role in pardoning a billionaire who failed to pay $100 million in taxes in 1983 dollars.

Hillary Clinton was appointed secretary of state despite the millions Saudis and other foreign interest groups have given her husband, who has shown a willingness to pardon $100 million in taxes for a few million donated to his presidential library, the modern equivalent of a pyramid.

The vetting of these people was done by Valerie Jarrett, who Obama wanted to take his seat in the Senate. Let’s see, she is CEO of Habitat Co., which operates housing projects. After 5 years of her management, one 504-unit scored an 11 out of 100 in a federal inspection.

Small wonder she never discovered Daschle and Geithner are tax cheats.

Does he have any honest friends? One crooked friend or associate can be a misunderstanding. Multiple crooked friends or associates indicates a serious moral flaw.

Complaint Filed in Rezko Land Deal

Now that the election is over the authorities can get started investigating people connected to Barack Obama.

A former Illinois bank official, now claiming whistleblower status, says bank officials replaced a loan reappraisal that he prepared for a Chicago property that was purchased by the wife of now-convicted felon Tony Rezko, part of which was later sold to next-door neighbor Barack Obama.

In a complaint filed Thursday in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Kenneth J. Connor said that his reappraisal of Rita Rezko's property was replaced with a higher one and that he was fired when he questioned the document.

Mr. Connor, a real estate and commercial credit analyst at the Mutual Bank Corp. in Chicago, also noted in the complaint that the bank received a grand jury subpoena in October 2006 requiring it to produce information concerning Mrs. Rezko's purchase, including the bank's files on the property.

The complaint also said that the grand jury wanted information on Mrs. Rezko's checking account and loan file and that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) had audited the Rezko file - although Mr. Connor's lower reappraisal had been replaced with a higher amount.

"Connor's internal whistle-blowing activity at Mutual Bank implicates Mutual Bank and the potentially guilty officers thereof to prosecution under federal and Illinois statutes," said the complaint, filed by attorney Glenn R. Gaffney.

The complaint said Mutual Bank officials could be guilty of making false statements, willfully overvaluing property, bank fraud, witness retaliation, willful violation of a lawful subpoena, FDIC violations, and state banking regulations.

Appraisal fraud is a huge problem in the mortgage industry and has led to more than one bank failure. When I worked for the old Beverly Hills Savings it was determined after that bank was taken over by the FSLIC in 1985 that the company had loaned millions on apartment buildings and other structures whose values were grossly overinflated thanks to appraisal fraud.

This is quite a two-fer today in Illinois politics, with the complaint above and the arrest of Gov. Blago for trying to sell Obama's Senate seat.

Don't Judge Me

From Michael Ramirez:

Here's Why the McCain-Palin Character Attacks on Obama Are Important

I've read some comments at various placed decrying the McCain-Palin character attacks on Obama as "old news". Well, to people who follow politics as closely as I have, and probably to you too, it is old news. But we have to remember there are millions of voters out there who simply have not followed the political game through the grind of the primaries and are just now starting to pay attention.

Maybe they tuned in for the first time when Obama gave the Berlin speech, or during the Greek Temple speech in Denver. Maybe they haven't been following the twists and turns of the campaign and never heard much about Rev. Wright, William Ayers, Tony Rezko, Obama's strange past, his association with ACORN, his role as a "community organizer", etc. Maybe they don't realize that he had served in the Senate only 143 days when he considered himself qualified to be president. Maybe they don't realize how dangerously left-wing his politics are. Maybe they don't realize that what they have heard about Obama in the mainstream media has been terribly slanted, often leaving out crucial information while whitewashing his past.

Yes, I agree they're politically stupid, but that's the world we live in and unfortunately those people have just as much right to vote as those of us who have been immersed in this race for the last 2 years. Therefore it's incumbent upon McCain, Palin, and their surrogates to remind all these politically naive folks of what the real Obama looks like. He's not just the guy with the smooth speeches and all that "hope and change" nonsense. He has a past and a series of relationships that suggest he's neither fit nor ready for the job of President of the United States.

This character campaign may be the last opportunity to get through the thick skulls of the politically stupid. It has to be done.

UPDATE: K-Lo at The Corner confirms my point about voters just starting to pay attention:

Last night I gave a talk in Manhattan about Obama and Catholics. Afterward, a number of people came up to me and told me that they can't believe how much they are just learning about Obama. I had talked in detail about his abortion record, which they found helpful. And many — to the point you would have thought he had been the opening act (as if) — mentioned that they found Sean Hannity's show over the weekend on Obama's ties to radicalism revealing.

Now is the time to hit this stuff hard.

Palin in Northern California

The proprietor at Dartblog had a chance to attend a fundraiser with Sarah Palin in the Silicon Valley town of Burlingame, CA last night and offers a lengthy report here. I thought this part of the report was particularly interesting:

So what played to this audience? What caused genuine applause? Well, one line, in particular: near the end of her twenty-minute speech, Sarah Palin told the audience that out on the hustings one comment from supporters has dominated, in frequency, all others: tell people about the real Barack Obama. She said this quietly, without drama. But: thunder, hoots, an ovation. It was the one real firework in her stump speech; yet from the cadence of the speech one could tell that it was not intended thus. Audiences know that standing up for one particular line in a political speech is reserved for positive lines—lines that honor someone, or declaim some principle, or express some affirmation, or promise some victory. Rarely are audiences moved to bolt from their chairs over a negative line. (They’re more likely to boo affectedly.) But Mr. Obama’s guile has created considerable resentment—so much, in fact, that even a flat recitation of his positions, with not a drought of oratorical flare, dazzles and refreshes and fires an audience.

Sarah Palin spent some time piquing the newsmedia, and thanks to a zealous tablemate who initiated them the New York Times earned decidedly unaffected boos from the Silicon Valley audience. But you understand that if the newsmedia were doing their job, it would not be enough for a political candidate merely to mention the opinions of her opponent. Some argument would be necessary. Not so, not so with Barack Obama. The free pass he has been given is felt—and felt widely. In the final analysis I suspect this will make the man’s candidacy weaker, not stronger. It leaves him vulnerable, qual piuma al vento, to a late-October truth-squad attack.

I agree. I think a serious effort in the next four weeks to tie Obama in knots using William Ayers, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, Louis Farrakahn, and any number of other shady associates could be very effective. The voters are catching on to the fact that the media is completely in the tank for this guy, but there are ways to get the message out.

Palin herself has driven the coverage in the last couple of days. By accusing Obama of "palling around with terrorists" she forced both the media to report the comment, and the Obama campaign and the media to respond. The efforts by the NY Times, the AP and others to inoculate Obama from his terrorist connections are not working.

Can it change the election? Who knows?

Obama Winning Support Among Those Who Haven't Been Paying Attention

For those of us who have been immersed in the political campaign for nearly 2 years it's hard to imagine that there are millions of Americans who are just now starting to pay attention. Those people missed the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the connections to unrepentant domestic terrorist William Ayres and con man Tony Rezko, the "bitter clingers" comments and many other things that make Obama so unpalatable as our next president. The Obama those people saw during the debate on Friday night is not the Obama the rest of us know. Mark Ambinder has more:

The first presidential debate was watched by tens of millions of people who were seeing the candidates discuss their views for the first time.

Both campaigns know that the most get-able voters at this point are the ones who are highly engaged with the race but tend to base their views on the highest, loudest levels of information.

The people most likely to move the poll numbers one way or another haven't been tuning into the 30 or so primary debates we've had; low information voters were the most relevant audience Friday night.

There was something Pat Buchanan said that night that is at once blindingly obvious and yet very important; Obama's debate performance placed him solidly in the American political mainstream.

Think of the "bitter" comment, his middle name, the flag pin, the Chicago connections. Low information voters wouldn't be out of line if they had a pretty strong impression of Obama formed by these attributes.

The sober performance and the congeniality towards McCain worked so well because so many people expected to see someone dangerous. Obama, in the debate, just did not read as an Ayres-Wright Chicago Elite Radical. Even the throwaway line: "we'd lower everybody's taxes if we could" quietly undercuts the notion of old-school liberalism.

It's possible that this weird racial/ideological caricature was priced into our (campaigns, media) debate expectations, and with Obama coming off as a sensible, middle of the road senator actually did him a world of good as far as the reassurance of sensibility.

The shame of all of this is that the election could end up being decided by people who were either too disinterested or too stupid to pay attention to the election and the candidates up until now.

Chicago Machine

McCain's new video ad ties Barack Obama to a host of infamous names in Chicago politics:

I've thought for a long time that somebody in the Chicago machine has been grooming Obama for a years and pulling the strings along the way. They found an intelligent, charismatic young man who could be molded as they wished, made sure he left no paper trail to create problems in later years, and quickly moved him through the system. He is their key to the White House.

Unfortunately, they didn't monitor his relationships very well. His connections to unrepentent terrorist William Ayres, racist preacher Rev. Jeremiah Wright, con man Tony Rezko and others have left him an intelligent man with a poisoned mind. At heart, he is a street thug radical leftist who has tried to mask his socialism with careful P.R. and a mantra of hope and change.

The veil has been lifted and now voters are getting a chance to see him as he is. Whether he can be stopped is still in question.

Some Thoughts on the Nomination of Barack Obama

Just a few minutes ago the Dem Convention went through their faux roll call vote and formally nominated Barack Obama as their presidential candidate. Without question it was an historic moment in United States history. Juan Williams on Fox spoke quite emotionally about what this meant to him and his family who never would have thought something like this was possible, and the network showed us lots of pictures of African-American delegates crying as the nomination was finalized.

But, as historic a day as this may be, and as far as America may have come in terms of racial relations, if we now vote for or against Obama based on his skin color, we counteract any gains we might have made as a nation which claims to embrace the idea that "all men are created equal".

Tomorrow is the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech in which he famously said the following:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Of course, he wasn't just talking about his children, but about all people, and if we are truly to reach his ideal, we must not allow history or skin color to determine our vote. We must judge the candidates by the content of their character.

Barack Obama may be an historic figure, but he is a deeply flawed candidate. His relationships to people like William Ayres, Tony Rezko and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright should raise caution flags. His inexperience, with less than four years in the Senate and no executive experience in or out of government should be another warning. His leftist politics which would damage our standard of living and make our country less safe in a dangerous world should stop any thinking voter from electing him. His words are pretty, but I worry about the intellect that accompanies them.

Right now most Democrats are too enamored at the historical reality to look at the reality of Obama's character. Some have already come to their senses as information about Obama has been released, and hopefully others will realize the tremendous risks involved with an Obama presidency. Will it be enough to stop history short of the White House?

I hope so.

Once Again the Counterpunch is More Devastating Than the Punch

When the Obamessiah decided to criticize McCain by trying to link him to Christian conservative Ralph Reed, he opened the door for McCain to link him to domestic terrorist Bill Ayers (pictured at left). It also gave the mainstream media an excuse to start looking into documents from an organization run by both Obama and Ayers, though so far only the conservative media is paying much attention. However, the coverup now underway may start getting even the liberal media's attention.

The latest punch/counterpunch is over the issue of how many houses McCain owns. He was asked and didn't really know. I personally think that's a good problem to have, but of course, the class warfare Obama crowd immediately sensed this was an issue they could use against McCain and have already created an ad.

Here's where once again the counterpunch becomes more devastating than the punch. The GOP immediately fired back, recognizing this new attack on McCain opens the door to remind voters about another associate of Obama's - convicted felon Tony Rezko:

“Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses? Does a guy who worries about the price of arugula and thinks regular people “cling” to guns and religion in the face of economic hardship really want to have a debate about who’s in touch with regular Americans?

“The reality is that Barack Obama’s plans to raise taxes and opposition to producing more energy here at home as gas prices skyrocket show he’s completely out of touch with the concerns of average Americans.” —McCain spokesman Brian Rogers

How many of McCain's homes were purchased with sweetheart loan deals from con men?

Jim Geraghty describes the recent Obama campaign activities as "flailing". That may be generous.

BarackBook.com

As a Facebook user I'm always looking for clever new applications to add to my profile, and I just added this one:

Here’s an entry you would not expect to see on Barack Obama’s official profile on the social networking site Facebook: “Barack Obama is now friends with Antonin ‘Tony’ Rezko.”

But that’s the first item on Mr. Obama’s “FriendFeed” on BarackBook.com, a Facebook parody site created by the Republican National Committee that it says will go live on Tuesday. According to the R.N.C, the site is intended to showcase some of Mr. Obama’s “notable associations.”

And highlighting Mr. Obama’s relationship with Mr. Rezko, the Chicago real estate developer who was recently convicted in federal court of corruption and money laundering, is just the beginning. Mr. Rezko was an early political backer of Mr. Obama and donated large sums to his campaigns. (Mr. Obama has since severed ties with Mr. Rezko and given much of the money he raised to charity.)

An early glance at the R.N.C. mockup shows Mr. Rezko with his own profile page that lists links to Mr. Obama and other “friends” of the Illinois senator. Other “BarackBook” friends include, Eric Holder, a Washington lawyer and member of Mr. Obama’s vice presidential selection team, and William Ayers, one of the founders of the radical group Weather Underground.

Each profile is set to include videos, news articles and sections like “Facts About Me and Barack,” “My Donations and Bundling for Barack” and “What Barack Says About Me.” The R.N.C. says it plans to continue updating BarackBook between now and the election. (Notably, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Mr. Obama’s controversial former pastor, does not yet have a profile.)

Users of Facebook – the real one – may be able to install an application on their personal page with links to BarackBook.

Alex Conant, a spokesman for the R.N.C. called the planned site “an interactive way to learn more about Obama’s poor judgment.”

Note: You can now install BarackBook.com on your Facebook profile as I did. Nice work by he RNC (and I don't get to say that very often).

People Who Will Complicate Obama's Campaign

No, we're not talking about Bill and Hillary here, but other friends and associates of Obama who will become familiar names to voters by November, if they aren't already:

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Who's Tony Rezko? William Ayers? Few Americans know, but they probably will by Election Day.

Rezko is a Chicago businessman, convicted of more than a dozen charges this week. Ayers is a professor—and former member of the radical Weather Underground. Both have ties to Barack Obama and may well show up in anti-Obama ads you'll be seeing before long.

These days, presidential candidates can expect to have every personal relationship, new or ancient, inspected like a crime scene on "CSI." Then, if there's political hay to be made, a version of the details is quickly out.

Republican John McCain has his own potential problem people whom Democrats may try to exploit. In some cases, they have been for years.

For example, there's Charles Keating Jr., a wealthy savings and loan executive from Arizona who was the focus of a congressional ethics investigation in which McCain was ensnared in the 1980s. Rick Davis and Charlie Black, two men in the inner circle of McCain's campaign, are former lobbyists—hardly a crime but still fodder for critics who want to undermine McCain's self-portrayal as a senator fighting to lessen big money's influence on politics.

So both parties will be researching—and putting the worst face on what they find.

It's especially true for Obama, still a newcomer to the national scene. Voters haven't had years to form impressions based on what he has said or the legislation he's passed. Or associates they've heard about forever.

The article goes on to detail the problems that will be caused by the following individuals: Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, William Ayers, Emil Jones, Rashid Khalidi, Father Michael Pfleger, and of course, Michelle Obama. Read the rest of the article for the details.

Obama's Speech Contradicted A Year of Denials

ABC News, which brought the world the Rev. Jeremiah Wright sermons, has now looked a little closer at Obama's speech and found that it contradicted a year of denials:

Buried in his eloquent, highly praised speech on America’s racial divide, Sen. Barack Obama contradicted more than a year of denials and spin from him and his staff about his knowledge of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s controversial sermons.
Similarly, Obama also has only recently given a much fuller accounting of his relationship with indicted political fixer Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a longtime friend, who his campaign once described as just one of “thousands of donors.”

Until yesterday, Obama said the only thing controversial he knew about Rev. Wright was his stand on issues relating to Africa, abortion and gay marriage. …

His initial reaction to the initial ABC News broadcast of Rev. Wright’s sermons denouncing the U.S. was that he had never heard his pastor of 20 years make any comments that were anti-U.S. until the tape was played on air.

But yesterday, he told a different story. “Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes,” he said in his speech yesterday in Philadelphia.

The Campaign Spot has two reports that should be of concern to the Obama campaign. Obama's Favorables Down, Unfavorables Up, and Obama's Lead in North Carolina Gone?

It looks like Obama's chickens are coming home to roost....

What's Clinton Hiding?

This is the new mantra of the Obama campaign:

(CNN) – Barack Obama's campaign took fresh aim at Hillary Clinton Wednesday for refusing to release her tax returns, asking in a memo circulated to reporters, "What does Clinton have to hide?"

"In the face of her unwillingness to release her tax returns, Hillary Clinton has made the false case in this campaign that she is more electable because she has been fully vetted," the memo stated. "When it comes to her personal finances, Senator Clinton’s refusal to release her taxes returns denies the media and the American people the opportunity to even begin that process."

David Axelrod, the Obama campaign's chief strategist, also said in a conference call with reporters Wednesday that Clinton has a history of non-disclosure and is the least-vetted candidate in the presidential race.

Clinton had said she will only release her tax returns if she captures the Democratic nomination, though her communications director, Howard Wolfson, issued a statement Wednesday indicating she would do so around April 15.

"Over 20 years of the Clintons' tax returns are in the public domain," he said. "Their tax returns since they left the White House will be made available on or around April 15. This information will be in addition to 15 years of uninterrupted public financial disclosure reports."

"Instead of making false attacks, we urge Senator Obama to release all relevant financial and other information related to indicted political fixer Tony Rezko," Wolfson also said.

I hope the GOP is taking notes. Regardless of whoever the nominee turns out to be the GOP should have an attack plan ready to go, thanks to the infighting Democrats.

Obama Wins Vermont, TX, OH and RI Too Close to Call

Barack Obama gets win #12 in a row in Vermont, but the exit polls in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island are very, very close. It may be a long night.

UPDATE: Exit polling seems to indicate that this could be a better night for Hillary than anyone thought. It seems her "3am" ad and the unfolding Tony Rezko story is hurting Obama, since late deciders seem to be going for Clinton in a big way. I personally think the arrogance of Michelle Obama and her pronouncements lately have also hurt Obama.

If Hillary wins both Ohio and Texas, it's game on, folks, because there won't be any reason for her to get out and we can look forward to more battles and some potential court cases over the delegates in Michigan and Florida. Winning both states would also keep her record intact of winning the "big" states, with the exception of Illinois. It's going to be hard for the superdelegates to abandon her quite so fast after this.

The Brokered Dem Convention

Mark Hyman writes at Spectator.org that a brokered Dem convention is all but certain.

There is only one thing the public can be certain of regarding the Democratic presidential nomination: without a miracle, there will be a brokered convention. Senator Barack Obama was leading Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the delegate count going into the Super Tuesday II primary elections on March 4. Obama held 1,193 primary delegates to Clinton's 1,038. The status of the super delegates is meaningless because their pledges today may not carry any meaning come the Democratic nominating convention in Denver during the last week of August.

A Democratic candidate needs to reach a minimum of 2,025 delegates to clinch the nomination outright. Clinton will not reach that figure before the last primary election is held in Puerto Rico on June 7. Neither will Obama. The Illinois senator needs 832 more delegates to reach the magic number of 2,025. There are only 981 remaining primary delegates that are up for grabs. Three hundred seventy delegates will be decided on March 4 and 611 will be divvied up across 12 primaries between March 8 and June 7. Obama would have to win an astonishing 85% of the remaining 981 delegates in order to claim the Democratic nomination outright. There are no winner-take-all primaries for the Democrats. Obama will never get the needed 832 delegates. He may fall short of reaching 2,025 delegates by as many as 250.

This means that neither Obama nor Clinton will tally the needed 2,025 delegates when the primary election season is completed. The pair will have eleven weeks between Puerto Rico's primary election on June 7 and the convening of the Democratic convention on August 25 to persuade super delegates to support their candidacy. A lot can happen in 11 weeks. There will be horse trading, influence peddling and cajoling. It will be a real knife fight to the end. Layer on top of this real-world events. Everything from the economy, Iraq, terrorism and damaging revelations of the ties between Obama and Antoin "Tony" Rezko, the land developer currently under federal indictment, could greatly influence the super delegates' commitments. Still, the only date that really matters for the super delegates is the day they cast their ballots in late August.

Complicating the matter for Obama is the status of the 313 primary delegates Clinton picked up in the Michigan and Florida primaries. The Democratic Party has stated it would not seat the Michigan and Florida delegates because those two states moved up their primary dates without national party blessing. But will national party leaders really not seat the Michigan and Florida delegates? Not hardly.

National Democratic leaders realize their nominee must capture at least one and possibly both Michigan and Florida if their candidate is to win in November. Party leaders cannot afford to disenfranchise the voters in those two states and give them a reason to stay home in November. On top of this, Clinton will not let the status of the Michigan and Florida delegates pass without a fight. She could turn to the courts for relief.

In the end, the remaining 16 primaries are simply a beauty contest. The final competition for the Democratic nomination starts after June 7. It will not end with any certainty until the last week in August.

At this point the only thing that can prevent a brokered convention is the withdrawal of one of the candidates. If Hillary has a bad day tomorrow the calls will increase for her to get out, but as long as she has a chance of winning, I think she'll hang in there. She certainly has a better chance of winning the Dem nomination than Mike Huckabee has on the GOP side, and he doesn't appear to be going anywhere.

There are still lots of machinations to be done to try and cobble together a winning combination for Hillary or Obama. I don't think either of them are inclined to give it up until it becomes a statistical impossibility.

I'll talk about this subject and more on tonight's BlogTalkRadio program which you can hear by clicking on the icon. Feel free to call in and join the conversation. The show kicks off at 7pm PT Monday night.

The call-in number will be (347) 347-5547.

The Clinton's Words Come Back to Bite Them

Leave it to Drudge to mess up the Clinton's plans to smear Barack Obama. This morning Drudge has a big picture of Bill and Hillary posing with Tony Rezko, the "slumlord" whose name was thrown at Barack Obama in the debate the other night. It turns out that the Clintons had also met Rezko, as evidenced by the picture.

It is unknown whether anyone will be able to come up with a direct connection between Clinton and Rezko, but that photo will take some of the sting out of their charges against Obama.

Meanwhile, Clinton is now running ads on Los Angeles TV. Her first ad is all about her plans to take $50 billion from oil companies to fund alternative energy programs to "reduce our dependence on foreign oil". Of course, in Clinton's world you can take $50 billion and the oil companies will just eat it. In the real world when you take $50 billion from oil companies they pass that loss along to the consumers of their products, which means higher prices for gasoline and other refined products.

She doesn't know what she's doing.