Obama may pay for higher gas prices

KANSAS CITY, MO. - A winter of good economic news for the White House may soon give way to the click, click, click of higher gasoline prices, experts said yesterday, threatening the recovery - and perhaps President Obama's chances for re-election.

By summer, some analysts said, you could be paying $4 per gallon, almost as high as the record set in summer 2008. A price that high could cripple the still-fragile recovery, as millions of Americans might decide to spend their just-renewed payroll-tax cut on gas instead of a clothes dryer or TV set.

"We're always oversensitive to the price of gasoline," said Chris Kuehl, a Kansas City-based economist and business forecaster. "It just provokes consumers into total depression if the price goes up. It's just psychological."

The average price for a gallon of regular gas in the Midwest was $3.41 last week, up 32 cents from a year ago and $1.59 more than the day Obama became president. The price of a barrel of crude hit $105 yesterday in some overseas markets, the highest in the past nine months, largely because of Iran's decision to curtail oil supplies as a response to sanctions imposed to pressure the country into abandoning its nuclear ambitions.

While economists, energy analysts and consumers keep a close eye on rising fuel prices, politicians are paying attention, too.

Obama's approval ratings have steadily climbed since the debt-ceiling debacle last year, reaching 47 percent last week, according to the Gallup poll, the highest they've been since June 2011.

But gasoline sticker shock could change that trend, many Republicans believe. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, reportedly has urged Republican House members to make gas prices an issue on the campaign trail this fall.

GOP presidential candidates Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich also have moved gas prices to prominent positions in their speeches.