Joe Biden's vow to phase out the oil industry at Thursday's debate creates a problem for Democratic candidates in red-leaning states and swing House districts as it gives Republicans an opening to tie them to their party’s left wing.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in April of last year that he wanted to make the 2020 election “a referendum on socialism.”

That strategy ran into a big problem when Democrats nominated Biden, a candidate who developed a reputation as a moderate during his decades in Washington, for president.

Now Biden’s blunt affirmation that “yes” he “would transition” when asked by President Trump on Thursday whether he would “close down the oil industry,” gives Republican candidates ammo.

Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist, said Biden’s statement is also a liability for Democratic candidates in Western Pennsylvania, such as Rep. Conor Lamb, and running for three Republican toss-up seats in Texas: the 21st, the 22nd, and the 24th congressional districts.

“In Western Pennsylvania where you have some battles for the Conor Lamb seat and others, it’s going to put them on the defensive. It holds a special resonance in Western Pennsylvania because [the energy industry] is what helped bring back that area after it was hard hit in the early nineties,” he said.

O’Connell said Biden “drew attention to something that he had been doing a good job deflecting on in terms of assuaging people’s fears,” referencing GOP attempts to tie Biden to bold liberal proposals to respond to climate change.  

Read more from Alexander Bolton at The Hill

SETTING SIGHTS ON THE ENERGY INDUSTRY: Democratic presidential hopefuls seem to be channeling the fervor of climate activists who are aiming to hold oil and gas producers liable for the costs incurred from climbing temperatures, rising seas and catastrophic weather. Their opponents see an opening to paint the party as pushing a radical agenda to undermine an industry that's been a bright spot for the economy and has cut U.S. dependence on foreign oil, Pro's Zack Colman reports this morning.

"The deeper and the longer the Democrats talk about this, the happier the Trump campaign is," said Ford O'Connell, a Republican strategist. "They see fodder not so much in the issue but in the solutions being proposed by the Democrats."

Last month's debates offered a glimpse. Attacks on fossil fuel producers came from leading candidates Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who was perhaps the most vocal among the front-runners by saying the companies were engaging in "criminal activity" by promoting fossil fuels despite their knowledge they were driving climate change.

And Sen. Elizabeth Warren has been pushing legislation requiring more climate change disclosures by companies, a move that could help spark new lawsuits against the energy producers.

Environmental groups say there's room to sharpen government oversight. "The conversation has particularly evolved to the point where we're not just talking about what's happening, we are talking about getting to the root of the problem and who's responsible," 350.org spokeswoman Lindsay Meiman said.

Read more from Kelsey Tamborinno at Politico

From Myra P. Saefong at MarketWatch.com: 

High diesel prices are “even worse for an economic recovery than high gasoline prices,” said Denton Cinquegrana, senior markets editor at the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS). “Most Americans pay attention to the price of gasoline, but we totally neglect the impact high diesel prices have on goods and services.”

On Thursday, the average price of diesel at the pump stood at $4.166 a gallon, up 8 cents from a month ago and 16 cents above a year ago, according to AAA data. Prices for the fuel have only topped $4 during two other periods, in 2008 and 2011.

“Anything from milk and eggs at the grocery store, to beer at the liquor store, and the newest PlayStation games at Best Buy” all get to their destination somehow — and that somehow is usually by truck, said Cinquegrana.

“Consumers concentrate concerns on gasoline and rightly so, because it represents 65% of fuel used for transportation. That is followed by diesel at 20% and jet fuel at 11%,” said James Williams, an energy economist at WTRG Economics.

Consumers are also “less interested in diesel because they don’t buy it every week and the cost increases are indirect,” he said, but diesel costs are “passed through in the goods we purchase.”

An estimated 94% of all freight in the U.S. relies on diesel, and Americans use a lot of it — around 59 billion gallons annually, according the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

It’s easy to blame the high price of diesel on lofty prices for oil, but that’s not the only reason.

Indeed, many U.S. refineries pay prices closer to Brent crude prices, rather than West Texas Intermediate prices for the blends that are used, said Cinquegrana.

“The technological advantage of U.S. refiners resulted in the U.S. becoming a net exporter of petroleum products,” said Williams. “It also exposed the U.S. market to higher diesel prices leading to higher costs for the trucking and rail industries."

As usual the loony left talks without the facts. From IBD:

As of the third quarter of last year, the oil industry earned just 6.7 cents per dollar of revenue, less than the average for all manufacturing of 9.2 cents (see chart). 

This year, even after a spike in prices, the oil industry ranks 90th in profitability out of 215 industry groups.

This is just one of the tricks used by the left to tar the industry, which employs 9.2 million people and accounts for 7.7% of the total U.S. economy.

As for "billions in subsidies" — oil gets $4 billion a year, a drop in a very large bucket, and far less than the $29 billion-plus a year for so-called alternative energy.

President Obama has gotten himself crosswise on energy, and it could cost him the White House in November. From Larry Kudlow at Real Clear Politics:

Oil companies have an effective corporate tax rate well above 40 percent. And they operate within one of the highest-taxed industries in America. According to the Tax Foundation, for more than 25 years, oil and gas companies have sent more tax dollars to Washington and state capitals than they earned in profits. That’s a fact.

But with gasoline prices headed towards $5 a gallon, and with oil prices over $100 a barrel, virtually the whole country outside of the White House wants more oil, more retail gas for the pump and more energy supplies everywhere in order to bring prices down. Raising taxes won’t do it.

Make no mistake about it: Fossil fuel is going to drive the American economy for decades to come. Green energy is not.

But President Obama is too busy spewing falsehoods to support his ideological agenda than to take account of the facts. And while he’s at it, one of the greatest, pro-growth revolutions ever is taking place right under his nose. It’s the oil and gas shale miracle, which if left unfettered will turn America and Canada into an energy-independent New Middle East inside of 10 years.

In fact, the collapse of natural-gas prices brought on by this revolution could become one of the biggest tax cuts for the economy in history, making all our industries vastly more competitive, revolutionizing transportation and providing more consumer real income at home.

Obama should quit the demagoguery, stop bashing oil and gas, stop taxing success and let our ingenious, creative, free-enterprise private economy spur America to a new generation of prosperity.

Ford O'Connell joins ABC News Radio's (Australia) John Barron on "Inside America" to discuss former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's endorsement of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the chances of a brokered Republican presidential convention, gas prices, the Keystone XL pipeline and America's need for energy security (interview starts at 11:50 mark).

Interview available at: http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/newsradio/audio/20120325insideamerica.mp3

Democrats rightly recognize that if they don't gain control of the gas price debate, Obama's re-election bid could be in serious jeopardy. From Politico's Alexander Burns:

The document circulating among Democrats was authored by Center for American Progress Chairman John Podesta and pollster Geoff Garin, and cites private polling that confirms “Americans are tired of the stranglehold oil companies have over our national energy policy.”

They suggest four policy proposals that would refocus the Democratic message along those lines:

• American Oil for American Soil. Require oil companies to use the oil that is produced in the United States from public lands and offshore to meet energy needs here at home, and stop oil companies from exporting oil from our public lands and waters to overseas markets. (60 percent)

• End Oil Subsidies. Repeal the four billion dollars per year in federal subsidies that currently are given to the oil companies, and use that money instead to fund investments that will make us less dependent on oil. (55 percent)

• Crack Down On Excessive Speculation. Tighter oversight and regulation of Wall Street speculators to prevent them from artificially driving up the price of gasoline. (54 percent)

• More Fuel Efficient Cars and Trucks. Increase fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks, so they get more miles per gallon and consumers will save on their gasoline costs. (49 percent)

Ford O'Connell and Democratic strategist Alexis McGill Johnson join Fox News' Rick Folbaum on America's News HQ to discuss whether high gasoline prices will hurt President Obama's re-election chances in 2012.

When it comes to oil (particularly domestic drilling), President Obama's energy approach is anything BUT "all of the above." Charles Krauthammer explains at The Washington Post:

Obama boasts that, on his watch, production is up and imports down. True, but truly deceptive. These increases have occurred in spite of his restrictive policies. They are the result of Clinton- and Bush-era permitting. This has been accompanied by a gold rush of natural gas production resulting from new fracking technology that has nothing at all to do with Obama.

Obama says of drilling: “That’s not a plan.” Of course it’s a plan. We import nearly half of our oil, thereby exporting enormous amounts of U.S. wealth. Almost 60 percent of our trade deficit — $332 billion out of $560 billion — is shipped overseas to buy crude.

Drill here and you stanch the hemorrhage. You keep those dollars within the U.S. economy, repatriating not just wealth but jobs and denying them to foreign unfriendlies. Drilling is the single most important thing we can do to spur growth at home while strengthening our hand abroad.

High gasoline prices are a major political problem for Obama. They are not just a pain at the pump, however. They are a constant reminder of three years of a rigid, fatuous, fantasy-driven energy policy that has rendered us scandalously dependent and excessively vulnerable.