Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

If President Obama thinks he can escape responsibility for high gas prices, he has another thing coming. As I have said many times in this blog during the past seven and a half years, ours is a strict-liability political system. The American people hold the president responsible for the economy, period. It doesn't matter whether the president is at fault. Please don't say that this is unfair. I'm not making a moral judgment; I'm describing how things are. If you don't like being held responsible for things that are beyond your control, don't run for president. (By the way, I'm not asserting that Obama is not at fault. I'm saying that it doesn't matter to the American people whether he's at fault.)