So, George, how's that relationship with oil-producing nations working for ya?

2000:

Mr. Bush and Republicans on Capitol Hill blame the gas-price increase on the Clinton administration, saying the administration has had no coherent domestic energy policy and, in imposing regulations to meet clean air standards, had allowed prices to drift as high as $2.39 a gallon in the Midwest. Mr. Bush also said the administration had failed to persuade the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to ''open the spigots'' to increase the supply. (source)

Gov. George W. Bush of Texas said today that if he was president, he would bring down gasoline prices through sheer force of personality, by creating enough political good will with oil-producing nations that they would increase their supply of crude.

''I would work with our friends in OPEC to convince them to open up the spigot, to increase the supply,'' Mr. Bush, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, told reporters here today. ''Use the capital that my administration will earn, with the Kuwaitis or the Saudis, and convince them to open up the spigot.''

Implicit in his comments was a criticism of the Clinton administration as failing to take advantage of the good will that the United States built with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf war in 1991. Also implicit was that as the son of the president who built the coalition that drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait, Mr. Bush would be able to establish ties on a personal level that would persuade oil-producing nations that they owed the United States something in return.

''Ours is a nation that helped Kuwait and the Saudis, and you'd think we'd have the capital necessary to convince them to increase the crude supplies,'' he said. (source)

And now:

The price of New York crude oil on Tuesday surged to a record high of 112.78 dollars a barrel, boosted by a weak US currency and tightening energy supplies, traders said.

Later Tuesday, New York's main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, stood at 112.65 dollars a barrel, up 89 cents on Monday's close.

London's Brent North Sea crude for May struck its own record high of 110.91 dollars a barrel on Tuesday. It later stood at 110.85 dollars, up 1.01 dollars.

[snip]

The US dollar dived to a fresh low of 1.5913 to the euro last Wednesday and has only partially regained its ground against the European unit.

Meanwhile US energy stockpiles showed an unexpectedly sharp decline in the week ending April 4, according to the last report from the US Department of Energy. The DoE was to publish its next inventories release on Wednesday.

"Force of personality" indeed.