Yes, we really are that stupid

Mrs. Exile and I were just talking about the mysterious rise in President Bush's approval ratings of late and wondering if it possibly could have anything to do with the fact that the price of gasoline has dropped precipitously over the past few weeks. Well, looks like we weren't the only ones curious to see if there was a correlation -- economist Craig Depken (on his blog Heavy Lifting) even did the math:

Here is an updated graph depicting Pres. Bush's approval rating (measured on the left axis) and the inverse of gasoline price (measured on the right axis). As the red line decreases, this corresponds with an increase in the national average retail price of gasoline:

I was always fond of saying that Americans would even tolerate a military coup, provided that they were guaranteed cheap gasoline, their shows on T.V., and the Super Bowl. Dubya may not yet be a dictator (although he often thinks he is, and behaves accordingly), but he is learning the hard way that you mess with this Holy Trinity at your own peril...