No doubt DougR is correct, and it's all one mass of coincidence that 1) incumbent political parties suffer when gas prices are high, and 2) gas prices were humongous, and 3) the party in power has significant connections to the oil industry, and 4) just before the election gas prices went down, and 5) just after the election they blipped up again. Perhaps DougR and OldGuy could explain to us the reasons for the sequence of events, of it had nothing to do with the elections. I'm not saying it did, mind you, but I do know that the administration and its party have deep and long-lived connections to the oil industry (that's fact, not opinion), and if there WERE any possible influence on the elections that could be exerted by lowering gas prices at the pump (and that's a very good bet), and if the administration's party COULD exert any influence on the oil industry to effect such a decrease (a pretty good bet, but that's opinion), the administration in power would not hesitate to exert whatever influence it had upon the oil industry (probably considerable) to effect a (temporary) decrease in gas prices in hopes that such would influece - however slightly (way too slightly, as it happened) the outcomes of the elections. But that's my opinion based on my observation of the administration and its "performance" over the last six years.