Obamamedia Frets: Skyrocketing Gas Prices Could Hurt Dear Leader at Ballot Box

Don't worry, though, they'll manage to find a way to blame Republicans.

Rising gasoline prices are taking a political toll on President Obama, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds.

It shows that among people claiming “serious” hardship from pump prices, only 39 percent approve of Obama. Among those who say there is no serious hardship or no hardship, 50 percent and 56 percent approve of the president, respectively.

What's more, among those claiming “serious” hardship, 53 percent say they will not vote for Obama. That number dips to 40 percent among people who say the financial burden is not serious and 39 percent among people who do not report hardship.

“Political support usually rests heavily on economic performance, and there the sharply rising price of gas is taking its expected toll,” a summary of the poll states. The poll also finds that people reporting serious hardship from gas prices are far more likely to believe the economy is getting worse.

Overall, the poll of 1,001 adults finds that 71 percent claim that the run-up in gasoline prices is causing financial hardship for them or others in their household. Forty-three percent called the hardship serious, 29 percent say it isn’t.

Those numbers are similar to polling in the summer of 2008, when gasoline prices reached record highs and the share of people reporting hardship peaked at 77 percent.

The summary notes that gas prices battered former President George W. Bush’s approval ratings just as much as – or more than – Obama’s.

That was probably because when prices surged in 2008 the media led off every newscast with horror stories from gas stations. Usually included tales about people having to decide whether to eat or fill up. We wonder how long the media will avoid doing those reports. Maybe when gas hits $5 per gallon, or $6.

Of course, Obama does have one plan of action: Blame those "greedy" oil companies.

Of course his class warfare rhetoric ignores the fact he happily accepted money from oil companies in 2008.

In the ad, Obama says, "I'm Barack Obama, and I don't take money from oil companies or lobbyists, and I won't let them block change any more."

Obama has taken $213,884 from the oil and gas industry as of Feb. 29th, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Sen. Hillary Clinton has taken $306,813 in that same period.

Two of Obama's campaign bundlers are also CEOs for oil and gas companies, per a list released on his campaign Web site.

Oh, and don't forget who was the largest recipient of BP money.