Coincidence?

The price of crude oil is as high as it's ever been. For months (if not years now), we've been told that the skyrocketing price of gasoline is reflective of this trend. On July 11, the all-time high of $147.27 per barrel was reached.

Now lest we forget, the war in Iraq is about ... well, oil. Oh that's not the official party line, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist (or petroleum engineer) to figure this out. So while all of this is happening, oil prices have gone up.

But wait! Oil prices have dropped 26% since July. This would be fabulous - if, of course, gas prices were dropping at the same rate. This isn't the case - the current drop being 12%. On the surface, gas prices are dropping, and they have been for weeks.

Meanwhile, in the midst of this apparent "improvement in gas prices" for the average American, we have been watching the oil companies realize the greatest profits in history. No worries though, because all through the Olympics we were exposed to the ads showing us the humanitarian efforts of ExxonMobil and how they are now taking the world under their wing to solve the problems of malaria in Africa. I don't know about you, but that didn't give me the warm fuzzies.

For months (if not years now), we've been told there is no specific exit strategy for the war in Iraq. The real root of the issue - Afghanistan - hasn't changed much. The U.S. relationship with Pakistan is on a downward spiral as well. As of today, they are no longer allowing any foreign operations on Pakistani soil (see this article ). Looks to me like that's a problem, in more ways than one. The real rationale for being over there in the first place - well, it's not showing any signs of resolution and if anything the scenario is getting uglier by the minute.

News flash: Suddenly, in the past two weeks, we have the makings of ... yes ... an exit strategy in Iraq.

My gut (and understanding of political history) has me thinking that it's only a matter of days before we have some other stunning developments in all of Bush's "legacy". Call it a conspiracy theory if you will, but wouldn't it be well-timed to suddenly offer some new evidence on the status of Bush's primary nemesis? Does Las Vegas give odds on this? I may have a few spare dollars to wager.

Is it a coincidence that a national election is November 4, only 55 days away?

Imagine ... a scene that isn't so hard to believe: an outgoing Republican president, doing what he can to make the Republican nominee's life as good as possible. An outgoing Republican president that I can just imagine is now saying something to the effect of ...

  ... see, it's all good everyone, time to rejoice in the state of the union (subliminal message - vote McCain) as we now have gas prices dropping and an exit strategy in Iraq (subliminal message - forget about Afghanistan right now) to appease everyone prior to the next Republican president (subliminal message - vote McCain) ...

Is any of this a coincidence? I would highly doubt it.