Bush has roiled the Middle East, creating instability and hiking fuel prices past what a normal increase in demand would do. Which clearly doesn't upset either the Bush or Cheney families. The cost of energy needed to plant, harvest, process and transport food has increased dramatically as have the value of their interests.

Bush's energy policies, with the US even more dependent upon countries such as the favored Saudi Arabia, have left the US even more dependent upon foreign oil than before 9-11. Increased domestic drilling would add insignificant amounts of oil in exchange for incalculable environmental damage. That issue is a red herring, trotted out as THE answer to all energy ills the US faces. It plays well to the choir, as propaganda should.

Added to that is the acreage taken out of food production to produce corn for ethanol, significantly lessening the food supply.

Bush's financial practices, fighting two wars with entirely borrowed money, has weakened the dollar, making imports more expensive. The resulting debt has helped limit the capital available for industry.

However, since Bush's true constituency spends a miniscule part of it's income on food and gas the Feds pay only lip-service to the issue. The middle-class folks who side with Bush are no more a part of his constituency than are any other middle- or lower-class folks.

Arf