Marathon Pundit: Pawlenty leads on Obama’s failure to address high gas prices

President Obama was in Chicago this morning,for a post "birther" taping of the Oprah show. If he bothered to look out of the window of his limousine, he would have notice that Chicagoans are paying the nation's highest gasoline prices.

Meanwhile, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is taking the lead on drawing attention to out-of-control fuel prices.

From a Pawlenty press release:

In case you missed it: Governor Pawlenty is speaking out against President Obama's failed energy policies and gas prices in several media interviews this week:

But as it relates to gas, one of the worst things we could do is increase the cost of energy by taxing it more and making it more costly…. We do need an energy policy in this country… When I go fill up my Ford Escape now, it's 80 bucks, and that's a big dent in most people's pocket books. It's affecting their psychology, it's affecting the rest of their budget, and it’s affecting our economy.- Governor Pawlenty, The Bill Bennett Show, 4/27/2011

We have to get serious about Americanizing our energy sources and developing it aggressively. This President and this administration have been sitting on their hands in that regard. We should be drilling in ANWR and other places around the country. We should have an aggressive posture towards developing American sources. - Governor Pawlenty, On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, 4/25/2011

We've got a country that's got some enormous energy assets that are not being exploited or leveraged to the benefit of our country and to our people… If you look at the Democratic Party and what he believes, they're mostly beholden to what I would consider militant or unreasonable environmentalists. And of course we have to be protective of the environment, but at the same time we've got to meet this country's energy needs and I just don't believe that President Obama believes what I just said about the importance of Americanizing and being aggressive about it. -Governor Pawlenty, Don Wade & Roma, 4/25/2011

What media are saying about Governor Pawlenty's leadership against President Obama:

Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, on Monday began another broadside against the president's energy policy, essentially blaming him for the high prices at the pump. - Michael Shear, New York Times

Tim Pawlenty ripped into President Barack Obama's energy policy Monday, saying he's failed to seize opportunities to drill for domestic energy sources…Pawlenty said he supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and offshore in "ways and places that are appropriate." And the former Minnesota governor lashed out at the Democratic Party as a whole, which he called "beholden" to "militant or unreasonable environmentalists." - Kendra Marr, Politico

Nearly all the likely 2012 GOP presidential candidates, including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, have seized on rising gas prices to take shots at Mr. Obama's offshore drilling policies.- Neil King Jr. and Carol E. Lee, Wall Street Journal (Paid registration required)

Pawlenty blasts Obama on energy policy: "You know we’ve got a country that’s got some enormous energy assets that are not being exploited or leveraged to the benefit of our country and to our people. This is a country that needs to get much more serious about Americanizing our energy resources and doing everything we can to develop our own energy here and add more supply," Pawlenty said on WLS Radio's Don Wade and Roma Show." - Jens Krogstad, Des Moines Register

Likely GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty is using rising gas prices to poke holes in President Obama's energy policy. The former Minnesota governor, like other GOP hopefuls, said Monday that the Obama administration should ramp up domestic oil drilling to reduce prices at the pump, which are approaching $4 per gallon on average nationally. - Jordan Fabian, The Hill