You're playing golf.  You're on the 4th hole.  It's a par 4 and you do it in 3.  (I know this is hard to believe; just work with me.)

You got a birdie on that 4th hole so, according to golf vernacular, you're "minus 1" or 1 below par.  But you actually have 3 more strokes than you had at the end of the previous hole, so you're actually "plus 3."

So which is it, minus 1 or plus 3?

I was asked the equivalent of that question yesterday during a presentation I was making on the 2008 election.  But even though I was the last speaker before the morning session ended and everyone in the room was about to head out with a box lunch for the first tee, the question was about gasoline prices rather than golf.

The question was why were Americans so angry about the price of gasoline when we were paying so much less than most of the rest of the world.

Coincidentlaly, the New York Times today has an interesting, although hardly groundbreaking, article about just that. The chart from the article shows that, including taxes, 12 countries have a lower price per gallon of gasoline than the U.S., while 18 have a higher price.  All of those with a lower price are oil producing countries.

But my response to the question at the conference had little to do with this chart.  The issue for most Americans is not what they're paying compared to the rest of the world, it's what they're paying now compared to the about half this number they were paying not that long ago.

By that standard, American anger about the rising price for gasoline is completely understandable.  By the world standard, it is not.

There are two interesting aspects to this question. 

First, everyone agrees on the number.  Like the golf example, no one disputes the score.  The controversy is how to interpret it.

Second, my very strong suspicion is no candidate for office will be able to convincingly and successfully say that that Americans should be happy with the price of gasoline because it's low compared to what consumers pay in other countries.  That would be the equivalent of telling the golfer that she or he has to refer to their play as 3 more rather than 1 less.  Anyone who has ever been on a course knows that will never happen.

Wait!  There's More.  EconomistMom has a post this morningabout a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll that, among other things, seems to validate why trying to explain with rational arguments why energy prices are rising won't work.