Minus frickin' 30 out there!

[Frank N. O.]

We've barely had any snow here, in stark contrast to the last 2 years running. I've barely had any use for winter-tyres and right now in the evening it's 9C which is 2C over the limit where summer-tyres should be used. We've only had a few days of moderately heavy frost (-10C) and otherwise it barely went under 0. And this is actually good considering since fuel-use jump up 30-40% when it's cold, and we've just a new record fuel-price of 13.69 kr for 1L 95 octane gasoline. If I may jump a little off-topic now I mentioned fuel. I heard americans will dump Obana in the elections because you now pay 4 USD/gall. 1 of your gallons is roughly 3.785 l and 1 USD is 5.65 DKK, try and calculate just how much more than 4 USD/gall we pay for fuel.

Frank

[Justin Martin]

Originally Posted by Frank N. O.

If I may jump a little off-topic now I mentioned fuel. I heard americans will dump Obana in the elections because you now pay 4 USD/gall. 1 of your gallons is roughly 3.785 l and 1 USD is 5.65 DKK, try and calculate just how much more than 4 USD/gall we pay for fuel.

Any person you heard saying that is probably promoting a Republican candidate. I don't think high gas prices by themselves would cause a President to lose an election, but there's no denying that the US is coming out of the recession much slower than we would like, and that hurts Obama's chances of re-election. High gas prices are a constant reminder that things aren't as good as we'd like them to be.

That said, I think Obama will win re-election. Defeating an incumbent President is hard, and I don't think any of the Republican candidates are compelling enough to pull that off.


As for comparing gas prices in the US vs Europe, remember that the cost of gas before taxes isn't much higher in Europe than here. I don't want $10 per gallon gas, but at least you guys get better roads and more government services.

[Avro707C]

America's economy will eventually recover - but I think the media wants things to change overnight. And no politician or President can achieve that.

There are plenty of mischief makers in the media and in Congress too with their own little agendas, and unfortunately, Joe Public is not in the first thoughts of those people.

That's how the Palins and the Gingrich of the world get a voice and a big following. Even though they probably wouldn't be effective as a President, they say populist things, rail on about small government, etc - but the all those sorts of things probably contributed to the financial devastation that swept the world. More regulation and more stringent reporting standards might have prevented this mess that my country has fortunately managed to avoid thanks to smart economic management by our Treasurer.

Now, on the weather - it's getting colder around Sydney now. Last night, had to throw a blanket on the bed, and damn was it windy and cold yesterday!

You Americans and Europeans will no doubt scoff at that, and call it warm.