What Will Hillary Do?

"The economy is in the tank," he told a crowd who waited for two hours in the heat and a rain shower.

"Yeah, in the gas tank!" yells one voter.

"You got that right," Mr. Clinton says, appearing delighted to riff with fellow Southerners.

"That's why we need Hillary."

So ended an article in the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal discussing Sick Willie's now-heavier involvement in his wife's campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

So, I am moved to ask the obvious,

"And just what, Bubba, would/will Hillary do about gasoline prices and supply?"

Will she encourage legislation to control price and allocate supply? Our great yellow-stain of a President, Carter, failed with those 'solutions.'

Would Hillary nationalize our oil industry, the better to manage it? That's a laugh- the Federal Government managing anything that is critical better than private enterprise.

Perhaps Hillary plans to simply levy new taxes on US oil companies. Great. That will cause them to lessen their efforts to procure, refine and sell petroleum products, since each gallon of refined oil will net them less money.

Or maybe Hillary plans to retaliate against anyone she feels is involved in runup of energy prices by passing anti-trade legislation and engaging in other actions calculated to 'punish' whom she sees as guilty countries or other parties.

Fine. She rails against how George Bush has allegedly been responsible for other countries holding the US in low regard, but she'll count among her first acts meting out retribution for imagined slights and anti-American energy-related behaviors.

Unfortunately, Bubba Clinton and his wife don't really 'get' economics. As I just wrote in this post on this blog, the recent behavior of energy prices, particularly oil and gasoline, are a direct result of simple inabilities of business people to have perfect crystal balls when forecasting how newly-wealthy Asians would spend their money.

There are no villains. Nobody is directly and singly responsible for oil prices rising as they have.

If anything, liberal Congressmen have contributed to the mess by restricting the search for energy off America's shores by our own oil and gas companies. New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg is running ads this very month touting his role in stopping energy exploration off of the state.

The truth is, Hillary should and can do nothing that will bring oil prices down, unless she plans to change parties and fight for lower taxes, a more hospitable climate for energy companies, and the chance to let higher oil prices signal the need for more onshore and offshore exploration and onshore refining.

About the only thing Government can do now is to try not to screw the situation up any worse than it is, and hope that private enterprises across the world will respond to the $100+/bbl oil prices by finding and bringing onstream, as soon as possible, new energy supplies.

In the meantime, Bubba, his wife, and all Americans would be better served by the couple keeping quiet about the energy situation.