Smart: the Obama that was

Obama has come out in favor of releasing some oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help reduce gas prices.  This is a bad idea because it's 1) short-term "fix"; 2) a political and not strategic use of the reserve; 3) counter to the principle of conservation and energy independence. 

There's an even better reason not to discuss it:

“We're arguing over a gimmick that would save you half a tank of gas over the course of the entire summer so that everyone in Washington can pat themselves on the back and say they did something,” said Obama. 

That was his comment about a federal gas tax holiday for the summer.  It's true here, too.