Please Explain

Being that oil prices are high, due to what I understand is increased demand by developing countries and a shortage of cheaper-to-get oil resources (like the North Sea) that still hasn't been offset by new discoveries...

And that there is worldwide economic recession...

How is it exactly the POTUS (Bush or Obama) somehow to blame for that for the price of a commodity or the collective health of the global economy?

Gasoline is over 8 dollars a gallon where I live. No one is blaming Netanyahu for that. Unemployment is up, but no one is blaming Olmert for that. Here they are angry about new taxes on the poor and middle class (including a $1.25 tax on a pint of beer) to pay for a tax amnesty for the 16 richest Israelis, but the cause and effect there is a bit easier to see.

Did Ford create the Yom Kippur War and the rise in oil prices then? Or was it Carter? Was Bill Clinton responsible for the dot com boom?

So please explain. Does the White House have some sort of console with sliders on it that controls the global economy, because if there is, I'm really really irritated that they don't set the "make more money" level higher.

My second question is, why is there such an obsession with teleprompters and have any of the people who are dropping these jokes re: Obama ever actually used one to do live television? I worked in broadcasting for a few years, both presenting news and writing it for others to read on a teleprompter, and it's not at all easy to do. It might look easy, but it's incredibly awkward if you aren't practiced and trained to do it.

I'm a decent public speaker and I've done acting and music most of my life...and it still took me at least a year doing it every week before I didn't look like a dork on TV.

I don't get why this is a talking point for the anti-Obama people. It's kind of like making fun of Romney for his hygiene and super-perfect hair and expecting that to be a reason not to vote for him.


Thanks.