James Glassman (via Glenn):

With gasoline prices close to $3 a gallon, President Bush this morning gave a disingenuous speech to an alternative fuels association about what he was going to do to stem the rising tide. There were a few flashes of candor and insight, but, on the whole, it was a sad example of political capitulation by a former Texas oilman who certainly knows better.

It's a good piece, and representative of why the president is so abysmally low in the polls (32 percent from CNN yesterday) at present. No great energy (no pun intended), and very few new ideas, is coming from the president on this issue, except to tell Americans that they will be in for a "rough" summer of high gasoline prices. The same statement could have come from Jimmy Carter in 1978, and comparisons to the ineffective former president from Georgia is not a situation that Mr. Bush should be happy to find himself in.

A great opportunity exists here for the president to make a major push for a serious effort at alternative sources of energy, and thus far he is squandering it.

Update: Fred Barnes on Fox's Special Report:

"Jimmy Carter could have given this speech today...it was that bad...this was truly a disappointing speech by the president."