I just got in, but I just have to post this. I think Michelle Bachmann’s gone and handed her critics a club and she’s about to be knocked silly:

Bachmann: I’ll bring back $2 gas

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — President Michele Bachmann has a promise: $2 gas.

“Under President Bachmann you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again,” Bachmann told a crowd Tuesday in South Carolina. “That will happen.”

Sure, politicians promise all kinds of things on the campaign trail. But Bachmann, a leading contender for the 2012 Republican nomination, is wading into truly tricky territory.

The price Americans pay at the pump is tied to the crude oil market — a global system largely beyond the reach of Washington.

It’s certainly true that prices — now about $3.50 a gallon on average — have risen since President Obama took office.

“The day that the president became president gasoline was $1.79 a gallon,” Bachmann said. “Look what it is today.”

Of course, that’s not the full story.

SNIP

Bachmann did not lay out a specific plan to drop prices on Tuesday. But her campaign website says that as president, she would ease restrictions on drilling and roll back federal regulations on the shale gas industry.

While increased oil and gas drilling in the United States may create good-paying jobs, reduce reliance on foreign oil and lower the trade deficit, it would have little impact on gas and oil prices.

Drill baby drill won’t lower gas prices

That’s because the amount of extra oil that could be produced from more drilling in this country is tiny compared to what the country — and the world — consumes.

Plus, any extra oil the United States did produce would likely be quickly offset by a cut in OPEC production.

Warning: Clicking the main link will bring you to a photo of Michelle Bachmann in full “1000 yard stare”.