McCain Pays Price of Soaring Gas

The party in power always suffers during an election year in which the economy is poor, and high gas prices are often the biggest barb. John McCain is suffering the most from high prices at the pump, a Politico analysis of Gallup polls show, with voters putting him behind the GOP at large on the question of who will give “greater priority” to energy.

McCain trails Democrats by 15 percentage points on the issue. And on the question of who would better “deal” with the energy problem, McCain lags rival Barack Obama by 18 points. That could indeed damage Mac, as polls also show that 77% of Americans now consider energy issues “very important” in determining their vote. (More John McCain stories.)