Proposals to slash gas prices abound in White House race

WASHINGTON (AP) — Get rid of the federal gas tax — at least for the summer. Tax Big Oil to help the rest of us out. Get drilling in that Alaska refuge. Soaring gasoline prices are suddenly the nation’s No. 1 crisis, and all the presidential candidates are offering cures.

Never mind that economists and energy experts see little value in such measures, at least in the short run. Or that even some top congressional leaders are raising eyebrows. It’s election season, and presidential contenders and other politicians are jumping on the bandwagon.

The slew of proposals includes: a summertime suspension of federal gas taxes, backed by John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton; a windfall-profits tax on oil companies, supported by Clinton, Obama and many other Democrats; a cry for new refineries, nuclear power plants and drilling in the Alaska wilderness, sounded by President Bush and his GOP allies; calls by those in both parties to stop buying oil at $117 a barrel — only to pump it back into the ground for strategic reserves.

“I think we are in a political crazy time. Some of this stuff being proposed borders on the irresponsible,” said Frank Verrastro, director of the energy and national security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

A NC voter sizes up Obama, Clinton, and finally decides

As a clinical research consultant working in North Carolina’s Research Triangle, Meribeth Howlett knows how to get to the bottom of things.

Her latest project was deciding whether to vote for Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primary Tuesday. Now she’s made her choice and voted by absentee ballot.

The Associated Press has been keeping up with Howlett, 43, since late last year as part of an AP-Yahoo News series of polls going back to the same group of people to see how their thinking about the campaign evolves.

For those living in Indiana and North Carolina, both holding their primaries Tuesday, it’s decision time.

In the last few days, Howlett decided “I’ve heard enough from the pundits” and began reviewing campaign literature with the practiced eye of one who reads medical charts and oversees clinical trials.

How voters make their choices can be a mystery, even to themselves. AP asked some of the poll respondents from Indiana and North Carolina to describe how they are making their decision.