Barack Obama flailed out fearlessly against yet another strawman the other day — promising to assemble a team to “root out any cases of fraud or manipulation” in oil markets that might be responsible for $4 a gallon-plus gasoline prices. 

Funnily enough — for anyone who cares at all about manipulation and fraud — the president was speaking at what the AP described as “a renewable energy plant in Reno” when he made this remark. It is a well-known fact that the heavy subsidies and endless rhetoric devoted by this president to “clean energy” are indeed one of the factors that are driving up oil prices, undermining the dollar and increasing the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

Earlier, at a fund-raiser in San Francisco for well-heeled lefties (paying up to $35,800 apiece to hear the president, according to the AP), Obama said that he was pressing ahead with his agenda in a difficult political environment and that “change turned out to be a lot tougher than expected.”

Well, of course, Rome wasn’t razed in a day. As Adam Smith, there’s “a lot of ruin” in a rich nation.  A frustrating thought for this president — but a hopeful one for the rest of us who are appalled at his mismanagement and conceit.