President Obama Asks Voters to Pay 'a Little Bit More' for Gas One Day After His Vice President Called Cheap Gas 'Goal No. 1'

WASHINGTON — President Obama, speaking on Long Island on Friday, asked Americans to accept paying 'a tiny little bit more' at the pump for the duration of the war with Iran, framing the four-dollar gallon as a patriotic contribution toward denying a hostile regime a nuclear weapon and, in the same breath, declaring 'I'll never apologize. I did the right thing.' The Press notes that no apology had been requested, which is generally the safest moment to refuse one.

The appeal arrived roughly twenty-four hours after the vice president told a cable audience that keeping gas cheap was 'goal No. 1' of the same war, with the nuclear question ranked second — an ordering the White House press office had by then already declined to endorse. Within a single news cycle, cheap gas was thus the top priority, then not the top priority, then something the public should be proud to forgo. Aides describe this as message discipline; The Press describes it as a price sign changing while the customer is still holding the nozzle.

'Remember that when you have to pay a little bit more, you're at $4,' Obama told the crowd, in a construction that manages to concede the price, blame the enemy, and claim the credit in eleven words — an efficiency the administration has not otherwise achieved at the pump.

The Press's ledger desk observes that the price of gasoline is the one statistic every president disowns on the way up and adopts on the way down, and that the request to pay more of it in a good cause has now been made by leaders of both parties, each of whom was told at the time that a real leader would never ask.

Reaction followed the standing choreography. Supporters heard candor: a president leveling with the country about the cost of security. Opponents heard a man who promised to bring prices down asking the country to thank him for the ones going up. The Press archives confirm both parties own the full vocabulary — 'shared sacrifice' and 'out of touch' — and swap it at the pump whenever the other side is paying.

The four-dollar gallon, asked for comment, remained four dollars, and is expected to be a policy triumph or a betrayal in November depending entirely on the price of a different gallon.