Carter: Oil Industry Will Hold Down Prices to Help Republicans

Is there an echo in here? Nope, just another attack on oil companies in the months leading up to an election.

Former president Jimmy Carter told Harry Smith on CBS's "The Early Show" August 27 that he predicted "oil companies will hold down oil prices a little bit, you know, to try to help the Republican ticket."

Carter also said that the economy would be the most important issue, "as it was when Bill Clinton was elected the first time."

The former president also said it was "surprising and gratifying" when presumptive Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama, Ill., carried Georgia in the primary "over two attractive white candidates-Hillary Clinton and John Edwards."

Greg Hunter, a CNN correspondent for "Your $$$$$,"made the same prediction that oil prices would go down as the election nears on the June 16 broadcast. "[T]hey're going to drive that price down, they're going to pop the dollar up, they're going to drive the price down, they're going to work this, say, for the election," he said.

The prediction is old hat if for some media personalities on CNN. Before the 2006 congressional midterm elections, CNN contributor Jack Cafferty took a shot at oil companies:

"You know, if you were a real cynic, you could also wonder if the oil companies might not be pulling the price of gas down to help the Republicans get re-elected in the midterm elections a couple of months away ... The interesting thing to watch on that story about gas prices is what happens to them right after the midterms, John," Cafferty said Aug. 30, 2006.

Carter has been giving interviews to a lot of news divisions at the convention.

On CNN's "American Morning" August 27, co-host John Roberts pointed out Carter's own objection to Obama to the former president with a clip from the Nov. 30, 2006, "Charlie Rose Show," where the former president had this to say about his would-be successor: "He's got yet to prove substance or experience to be the president."