A president's popularity, as measured by job-approval ratings, plays an undeniably critical role in determining his Capitol Hill clout and his party's electoral prospects. So whatever influences that popularity is important.
Countless factors can cause fluctuations in a president's approval ratings, including interest rates, inflation, unemployment, the general health of the economy, whether the country is at war, whether civil or social unrest is brewing, and whether the White House and Congress are addressing what the public considers the nation's most pressing problems.
Energy prices deserve more attention as a factor in influencing presidential popularity than they usually get. We are, as President Bush has pointed out, "addicted to oil." The financial well-being of many American families is seriously affected by swings in the price of oil (in the form of gasoline or home- heating oil); natural gas, which heats more than 55 percent of American homes; and electricity, much of which is generated from oil or natural gas.
Because U.S. workers' real wages have not kept pace with inflation, surges in energy prices hit American wallets especially hard these
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