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Obama mocks gas-prices question

<p>Following up on an item from yesterday, Republicans are increasingly fond of arguing that President Obama actually wants the price of gas to go up

Following up on an item from yesterday, Republicans are increasingly fond of arguing that President Obama actually wants the price of gas to go up this election year. It's hard to believe, but Fox News' White House correspondent pushed the same line during today's press conference.

When the president is literally laughing at a reporter's question, and it wasn't intended to be funny, that's generally not a good sign.

For those who can't watch clips online, Obama responded, "[J]ust from a political perspective, do you think the president of the United States going into re-election wants gas prices to go up higher? Is there anybody who thinks that makes a lot of sense?"

He added, "I want gas prices lower because they hurt families, because I meet folks every day who have to drive a long way to get to work. And then filling up this gas tank gets more and more painful, and it's a tax out of their pocketbooks, out of their paychecks. And a lot of folks are already operating on the margins right now. And it's not good for the overall economy because when gas prices go up, consumer spending oftentimes pulls back. And we're in the midst right now of a recovery that is starting to build up steam, and we don't want to reverse it."

In theory, that should effectively end the discussion, but Republicans seem awfully invested in this -- Mitt Romney wrote an op-ed for the Columbus Dispatch yesterday, arguing that Obama's "goal" is to have "higher prices" for gasoline.

That really doesn't make any sense, but that really doesn't seem to matter.