This week USA Today ran a front page story about rising gas prices:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2010-03-08-gasoline-prices_N.htm

As the article notes:

“The national average price for a gallon of gasoline is up 9 cents in a month and will likely crack $3 in coming weeks, given a typical spring rally before the summer driving season, oil and gas analysts say.”

This still makes no sense to me. With the economy in a recession, people are driving less and therefore demand is less. So why are prices going up? The reason is because the gas market operates differently than other markets. A foreign oil cartel controls prices.

Isn’t it time we did something about that?

Today we begin our series on why America needs new sources of energy. And to support that argument, I give you one word: Venezuela.

US demand accounts for 60% of Hugo Chavez’s oil imports. So if we reduced our demand for his oil, we would reduce him. And he needs to be reduced.

So why not expand our exploration of natural gas here in the US? And why not expand our research into renewable energy sources like wind and biomass?

Now is the time.

So gas prices are heading back up. That’s expected as we approach the summer and the driving months. But it’s also a good time to re-examine why gas prices are so out of whack and why we need to re-focus our efforts on renewable energy.

That’s what we’ll be talking about this week on the blog. Join us each day!

Today we conclude our series on the Texas primary. And we focus on the one person who should be paying the most attention: President Obama.

Since last fall, President Obama has seen Republicans win in Virginia, New Jersey, Massachusetts and now Texas. What’s interesting about Texas is that many thought the Tea Party movement would tear apart the GOP. Instead, the Tea Party movement helped increase GOP turnout, but still the party elected mainstream candidates. That’s bad news for the Democrats.

Maybe it’s time for the White House to start paying attention to these election trends. Let’s start over on health care, and get busy on things we can agree on, like carbon credits and a real jobs program.

Here is another bit of fallout from Tuesday’s elections: what happens to Kay Bailey Hutchison?

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/03/03/2012980/hutchisons-supporters-peers-urging.html

Should she stay or should she go? That is the question facing Senator Hutchison. Before she ever announced she would run for governor, Hutchison said she would resign to focus full-time on the gubernatorial race. But then she hedged and said she would wait until after the primary to resign.

Well, now the primary is over. And I think Hutchison should keep her word and resign. Do the honorable thing and let someone else have a chance.

What do you think?

So the election returns are in. And it seems my prediction was correct. While the Tea Party movement helped energize new voters, most incumbents survived just fine. And many of them co-opted some of the Tea Party themes. Rick Perry is a great example. Though he’s been in office for years, he successfully cast himself as a man fighting against entrenched Washington power. It worked.

The question now becomes: what happens next? Will the Tea Party movement fade? Will the Republican Party continue to be alert and try and address Tea Party issues?

What do you think?

So here is my prediction for today’s elections:

I think the Tea Party movement will win by losing. That is, the Tea Party will have moved the GOP to the right, increased the party’s commitment to fiscal discipline and put the fear into a few GOP elected officials. All of that is good. But I don’t expect many of the actual Tea Party candidates to win. Why? In American history, protest movements rarely become majoritarian movements. Instead, they make their point and one or both of the parties takes on their issues. Think of Perot in 1992 talking about the deficit. Republicans and Democrats in the 1990s got the message and balanced the budget for the first time in decades.

So that’s my prediction about tonight. What’s yours?

This week, America begins to learn what the impact of the Tea Party movement will be on the Republican Party. The Texas GOP Primary is tomorrow. And we’ll be discussing the primary, its results and its meaning all week long on this blog.

So if you are in Texas, be sure to vote tomorrow. And then be sure to check back in each day this week and as we analyze the results together.

“We’re not campaigning anymore.”  That’s what President Obama said to Senator McCain when the senator complained about the health care process during yesterday’s summit.

I was saddened that the president didn’t take this more seriously. I wish he would have said: “You’re right, Senator McCain. The American people deserved a better process than what they got. And that’s why I wanted to hold this summit to see if we couldn’t start over.”

But anytime anyone is defensive, it’s a sign that he doesn’t really get it.

No, the president’s health care plan isn’t unpopular because he didn’t explain it well enough or because he didn’t package it well enough. It’s unpopular because it’s not a good plan and because it was produced by a bad process.

The country understands that. Too bad the president doesn’t.

Here is a novel idea for the president’s health care summit: invite some doctors.

The summit that will be held tomorrow appears to be long on symbolism and short on solutions. Rather than open an honest negotiation, the administration has stacked the deck by releasing the details of the president’s plan in advance of the meeting. We talked about that yesterday and it remains a prime example that this summit is just for show.

But here is another example: the only doctors who will be in on the negotiations are doctors who are Members of Congress. So we’re going to have a meeting about health care and not include the experts on the issue?

That’s some more bad medicine from this administration on health care.

Here is what I think the president should do as he gets ready for the health care summit this week: he should drop this new plan he’s just introduced:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-02-22-health-care-revision_N.htm

Wasn’t the whole purpose of the summit to start over on health care? Then why is the president trying to resurrect bad ideas like raising fees and fining small businesses?

And what does it say about the president’s willingness to work with Republicans that he is already announcing a plan before the meeting is even held?

This week the president will be meeting with Congressional leaders in a health care summit. And so, by popular demand, our blog will return to the topic of what Obama should do next.

We all get second chances in life. And the president should make the most of this one.

What do you think he should do in this summit meeting? Let me know. And I’ll start letting you know what I think tomorrow.

Any job competition leaves questions and even some hurt feelings. But at the end, one person gets the job and everyone else gets behind him.

As I said all along, ACU could not make a bad choice between Phil Schubert and Rick Lytle. Now that Phil has been selected, the entire ACU family needs to join together to help him succeed. He’ll need everyone’s help since ACU faces some important challenges in the coming years.

Let’s remember that this is “no ordinary university” and let’s help make Phil Schubert a great president. My friend Donny Vaughn has started a Facebook page where folks can salute Phil. I urge you to join. And I urge you to pray for Phil and for ACU.

Last week, ACU chose Phil Schubert to be its next president. And in this blog, we congratulated him and wished him well.

Over the weekend, a number of people have called or emailed me with comments on the selection.

So we thought we would open up the discussion and listen to you. What do you think of the choice?

Later this morning, ACU will name Phil Schubert the school’s 11th president. Several sources have confirmed this for me.

I want to congratulate Phil for his selection and wish him nothing but the best. Phil is perhaps best known for several marketing successes during his time in the ACU administration, including a deal with Apple to give all incoming freshmen Iphones.

He will face some challenges as the new president, especially as ACU’s student body grows more religiously diverse and as ACU tries to maintain its Church of Christ heritage. But I believe that with’s Phil’s leadership the job will be done.

What do you think? Let me know. And look for a press release later today with more details.

Today we continue our series on presidential do-overs. And the health care issue provides a perfect opportunity to do something that the American people want to see from their president: they want him to confront his own party.

As we’ve discussed on this blog before, great presidents always take on their own party. This shows the rest of the country that they are more than presidents, they are leaders. After all, anyone can confront an enemy, But confronting a friend is harder. Yet health care gives the president the chance to do just that.

So instead of outsourcing health care to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, he can work with Democrats and Republicans and create a plan that takes some simple steps that will work: like giving individuals tax credits to purchase their own insurance, or reducing (rather than increasing) the number of regulations on health plans. These two steps would help contain health care costs. So if the president is really serious about “bending the cost curve” he can start by bending the ears of his own party.

Today we continue our series on do-overs. What should President Obama do over from last year’s health care debacle?

This time he should try and include Republican ideas. And the early indications are that he is especially interested in one: medical malpractice. http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/09/obama.health.care/

That’s a good place to start. How can we reduce the cost of health care when doctors and insurance companies are getting sued frivolously? Lawsuits only help lawyers. Meanwhile, the rest of us get stuck with the bill. Last year, Obama didn’t seem interested in medical malpractice. This year, he seems open to it. That’s a good do-over.

Today we continue our series on what Obama should do over as he now tries to fix the health care mess.

For starters, he should drop any hint of a government-run health option. I know that this is no longer in the Democratic bill, but it is still in the minds of Democratic legislators. Many of them would love to revive the idea of a government-run plan. But the president should reject this. He spent a great deal of time in 2009 trying to convince people that the same folks that run the post office would do a good job running health care. They can’t and they won’t. Government bureaucrats don’t know better than you and your doctor.

So let’s start this new round of discussions on health care by completely abandoning any talk of a government-run plan.

Last week we ended our series on what Obama should do next. This week we begin a new series on what Obama should go back and re-do. By all accounts, his first year in office created a lot of controversy. How can he fix that?

We’ll start by focusing on a key issue where we know the president has stated he is going to try and move forward: health care. Okay, fine. But what should health care reform look like? We know what it shouldn’t look like: the bill House and Senate Democrats produced last year. It’s time to start over. So this week, I’ll be giving the president some helpful hints about what should and shouldn’t be a part of health care reform.

Check back in each day for more information!

Today we conclude our series on what President Obama should do next. And it’s the most important thing he can and should do: focus on jobs.

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201002050845dowjonesdjonline000354&title=data-snapus-jan-jobless-rate-falls-to-97-payrolls–20k

Today news reports indicate that another 20,000 jobs have been lost recently. In total, this recession has cost this country 8.4 million jobs. So the question is: why are focusing on anything other than jobs? Health care can wait. Foreign policy can wait. But jobs can’t. The president should immediately work with Congressional leaders to enact a jobs plan. And it needs to be based on reducing taxes and empowering individuals and entrepreneurs.

The economy is the issue…now is the time.