Why pick such an extreme platform?

Here's a serious answer and to keep it on-topic, it also address the fact that gas prices aren't necessarily high because the Obama administration rejected the Keyston XL Pipeline, but for other reasons. In fact, the interview addresses your exact question, almost word for word.

Of course. some people don't really want to learn the facts. They'd rather watch a biased "documentary" and accept what it says as...um...gospel, and form opinions based on what's spoon-fed to them.

Good question. What is the Tea Party's platform? I'm not being snarky; I just did a quick websearch to confirm my sense that... there isn't one (at least not an authoritative one). This forum thread is the closest I could find to confirming that: http://www.politicaljack.com/forums/sho ... y-Platform

More later, gotta go to work.

why waste your time navel-gazing about an election where the outcome is already a done-deal?

Thanks, but that is specifically about gasoline rather than oil.

While Romney's religion in Mormonism, in my opinion, is unfortunate I believe he's the lesser of two evils.

yes, but oil is also used for other things. Are we a net exporter of oil or gasoline or both? And it doesn't really answer why we buy gas/oil from other countries and sell our own to other countries.

The United States is both an exporter and an importer of gasoline at the same time. It's like we're two different countries. A lot of the oil produced in the U.S. gets refined into gasoline in Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi. It then goes into pipelines for distribution to East Coast states and other areas where gas is consumed.

But those pipelines, Rob Smith says there are too few of them and they're not big enough.

SMITH: These pipelines are essentially filled to the brim, so to speak, and yet the East Coast markets still don't have enough gasoline. So they're forced to import.

GJELTEN: The East Coast imports gasoline even though there's more than enough gasoline available down south. So the gasoline down there gets exported, mostly to Latin America. And now the U.S. is officially exporting more gas than its importing.

In part it's because the U.S. is producing more gasoline; more importantly, we're consuming less; ethanol is displacing some gasoline; we have more efficient cars. Plus, we are driving less, for reasons ranging from the economic downturn to the aging of the U.S. population.

I think we import oil because we can refine it more cheaply than other countries. We process the stuff, then sell it at a value-added price. Evidently, the demand here has declined to the point where we have a surplus to sell. The reason prices don't go down is because the rest of the world bids it up. What oil refiner would sell his wares in the US at a lower price when he could get more money for it overseas? This is one of the effects of having a global economy.

(Now, since this positive development occurred during Mr. Obama's reign, he gets the credit, right?)

Nice. There are exceptionally literate people in the Tea Party, too. Like, say, me.

Good question. What is the Tea Party's platform? I'm not being snarky; I just did a quick websearch to confirm my sense that... there isn't one (at least not an authoritative one). This forum thread is the closest I could find to confirming that: http://www.politicaljack.com/forums/sho ... y-Platform

I would like to be able to say, "It depends on whether or not his policies brought about this development" but we all know Presidents often take the credit or blame for things they had nothing to do with and likewise often don't get the credit or blame for thing that they did.

It was then that I decided for myself that I do not believe it is possible to be both intelligent and a supporter of the tea party movement. Literate? Yes. Even morons can learn to read. I would even go so far as to say that someone who supports a subset of the tea party ideals could be intelligent. But as a complete platform, you'd have to either be disingenuous or a moron to think it could work.