How many people, I wonder, will take note of this?

A once-popular bumper sticker says simply, “When Bush took office, gas was $1.46.” It was meant to be a slam, but as the end of his eight years approaches, President Bush is seeing gas prices that, adjusted for inflation, are lower than when he was inaugurated.

Last week’s $1.59 - the average for a gallon of regular on Dec. 29, according to the Energy Information Administration - works out to $1.33 in 2001 dollars, or 9 percent less than it was the day Mr. Bush took office. The tumble in prices, from a high of more than $4.05 in early July, has meant incredible savings.

John B. Townsend II, spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, said the inflation comparison doesn’t mean much to consumers paying at the pump, but the drop in prices has put real money in consumers’ pockets.

The cognitive dissonance overload should be massive for anyone who believed that the President and Vice President pressed special red buttons in their respective offices to drive up the price of oil and benefit “their buddies in the oil industry.”