And it is worth every penny.
That said, as I was pumping gas, I realized that it may be interesting in the coming years to compare George W. Bush to a preisdent most conservatives loathe: Jimmy Carter.
President Bush is dealing with a war in Iraq and steadily increasing petrol prices at the pump here, it makes me wonder if he may feel like he’s channeling President Carter’s karma… in that he was dealing with the Iranian hostage crisis and gas lines — which led to him being swept out of office by Ronald Reagan in 1980.
I remember the love affair the country had with the Carters as a kid — his brother Billy, who was known for his love for beer, his gray-haired mother (Lillian), and his wife, Rosalyn. Oh, and don’t forget his youngest child, who grew up in the White House… Amy Carter. While the nation is even more polarized now, and my memory of Carter’s presidency is colored by the fact that I wasn’t even ten years old when he came into office… it seems that, if you squint really hard and strain your ears, it all seems to be a strangely familiar time.
In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy driving my car, but keep an eye on ways to conserve resources — this is not the time to be gluttonous, when so many people are recovering from Hurricane Katrina and the nation is still at war.