Obama administration plays politics with statistics

In light of today's ridiculously high gas prices, the Obama administration is working overtime to try and shield the president from the public's discontent.  Take, for instance, this graphic published at WhiteHouse.gov:

The graphic seems to suggest that President Obama has single-handedly decreased our reliance on foreign sources of oil -- fact that would be nice if only it were true.  The use of foreign oil as a percentage of overall U.S. consumption is down for two key reasons: 1) Our economy is weak and we can't afford the imports, and 2) higher gas prices have forced total oil consumption down in the U.S., resulting in greater domestic oil usage.  More domestic oil used = less foreign oil imported.

“The reason we can export so much is demand in the U.S. is weak,” says Sander Cohan, a global transportation fuels analyst with Energy Security Analysis Inc.  "Since 2005, the U.S. has lost nearly 2 million barrels a day of total product consumption, he said."

So there you have it -- further proof that politicians can take any data set and use it to convey their own political agenda.