How the Saudis helped get Bush elected in 2000

[spooked]

http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/06/20/gas.politics/


Political fallout from high gas prices could harm Gore
June 20, 2000


By Bill Schneider/CNN

What's the political fallout of soaring gasoline prices? It's not all that obvious in this year's presidential race. Not when one candidate is part of the incumbent administration. And the other candidate used to be an oil man.


Experts say there are lots or reasons for the oil shock. But voters are suspicious. With good reason. Why did it happen so suddenly? And why is it concentrated in one part of the country?

[NMDemDist2]

1. wow big surprise there huh? NOT n/t

[wtmusic]

2. And high oil prices for summer '04?

With a sudden drop in October?

Looks like deja vu all over again.

[No Mandate Here.]

5. Check out Woodwards's comments

on 60 Minutes to see how much * and Saudi Arabia are the same...

<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/15/60minutes/main612067.shtml>

(snip)

But, it turns out, two days before the president told Powell, Cheney and Rumsfeld had already briefed Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador.

”Saturday, Jan. 11, with the president's permission, Cheney and Rumsfeld call Bandar to Cheney's West Wing office, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Myers, is there with a top-secret map of the war plan. And it says, ‘Top secret. No foreign.’ No foreign means no foreigners are supposed to see this,” says Woodward.

“They describe in detail the war plan for Bandar. And so Bandar, who's skeptical because he knows in the first Gulf War we didn't get Saddam out, so he says to Cheney and Rumsfeld, ‘So Saddam this time is gonna be out, period?’ And Cheney - who has said nothing - says the following: ‘Prince Bandar, once we start, Saddam is toast.’"

After Bandar left, according to Woodward, Cheney said, “I wanted him to know that this is for real. We're really doing it."

But this wasn’t enough for Prince Bandar, who Woodward says wanted confirmation from the president. “Then, two days later, Bandar is called to meet with the president and the president says, ‘Their message is my message,’” says Woodward.

Prince Bandar enjoys easy access to the Oval Office. His family and the Bush family are close. And Woodward told 60 Minutes that Bandar has promised the president that Saudi Arabia will lower oil prices in the months before the election - to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day.

Woodward says that Bandar understood that economic conditions were key before a presidential election: “They’re high. And they could go down very quickly. That's the Saudi pledge. Certainly over the summer, or as we get closer to the election, they could increase production several million barrels a day and the price would drop significantly.”


Just of what and over whom is this bozo pResident?

Where is his flowing white robe?

[wtmusic]

6. Yep, saw it yesterday

we can't push this one enough. I'm writing my reps right now. Full investigation.

[zbdent]

3. California needs to remember who helped solve all the problems

from the 1999-2000 power shortages.

Oops, did Bush do anything yet, other than endorse Ahnold?

And isn't it funny how Ahnold proposed almost exactly what Gray Davis was proposing? And how Ahnold suggested "terminating" the debt by adding to the debt?

[lindashaw]

4. But now, thanks to Woodward, we're forewarned. I don't think it's

sunk in yet.