Newt Gingrich Blames Obama for High Gas Prices

While the rollout of his presidential exploratory committee flopped, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich turned his focus on Wednesday to rising gas prices -- and pointed the blame at President Barack Obama.

A disturbing pattern has emerged during Barack Obamas first term as president, noted Gingrich in an essay his team released on Wednesday. At the times when our nation most needs presidential leadership, Barack Obama chooses to let others take the lead.

Gingrich pointed to Obamas record on domestic and international affairs before maintaining that the president is doing nothing while gas prices continue to rise.

During the presidents press conference Friday on rising energy costs, he sought to assure the American people that gas prices would not rise too much because other oil-producing countries have 'committed to filling any gaps in supply, insisted Gingrich. Since President Obama took office, gas prices have increased over 90 percent. After presiding over this enormous rise in prices that are putting a greater and greater strain on family budgets, imagine the naivetof hoping OPEC and other hostile and unstable countries will continue to support our economic recovery. The fact is that since taking office, the Obama administration has conducted a war on American energy that has killed jobs and increased gas prices.

Gingrich tore into Obamas policies on domestic energy exploration and announced he was bringing back an old campaign called Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.