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**Written by Doug Powers

Here’s an item fresh from the “what if Bush had said this” file, courtesy of Debra Saunders:

At Friday’s news conference, President Obama tried to connect with the common man coping with rising gasoline prices. Instead, the president left little doubt that he is clueless about cars.

“You may want to buy a fuel-efficient car,” quoth Obama, “but you may not be able to afford it. And so you’re stuck with the old clunker that’s getting 8 or 10 miles a gallon.”

Eight to 10 mpg? Which clunker would that be? I wondered. An old Hummer? Your father’s father’s Oldsmobile? A late-model Lamborghini? It takes a luxury brand, a boat-sized machine and/or a few decades to approach those dismal mileage numbers.

Is there a “Cash for Clunkers II” on the horizon to get the rest of our mythical 8 mpg cars off the road so we can afford the $50,000 golf carts we really want?

Resident White House economic comedian Austan Goolsbee must have helped the president assume that people getting 8 to 10 mpg at $3.50 to $4-plus a gallon would be less inclined to switch to a more fuel efficient car instead of more.

On the average weekday I drive about 70 miles. Gas here right now is about $3.65 a gallon. Assuming my car was getting 10 mpg and throwing some weekend driving in the mix, there is little doubt that a monthly fuel bill of $500 to $750 would be enough to get me to scrap a vehicle that’s furiously sucking up more gas than a Beano tab in Michael Moore’s gut for one that gets much better mileage.

That said, due to the fact that the basic tenet of Obamanomic theory is that people are, first and foremost, incredibly stupid, assuming a consumer has a modicum of common sense isn’t an option when developing action/reaction projections with preconceived outcomes in the land of Hope & Change.

Update: Just for some added material, fuel efficiency has been on a steady rise for decades (h/t John S).

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe