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Hey, good morning, Playbookers. I'm Rogum Winovalin. It's Thursday. Maybe it really just all comes down to gas prices.

It's your Politico Playbook Daily Briefing.

There's a reason White House Chief of Staff Ron Clayne checks AAA survey of gas prices every

single morning. For all the well-informed punditry about whether this or that issue will

be the terrain upon which 2022 rises and falls today. With 19 days left until Election Day,

it seems that the most salient issue in the election for most voters could be pretty straightforward.

It's the gas prices, stupid.

Look closely at so many of the metrics people have suggested are determinative in the campaign,

from inflation rates to President Joe Biden's approval number, and it becomes clear, gas rules

everything around me.

As prices went down in the summer, Democrats' fortunes improved to the extent that it seemed

like they could buck history and hold onto power this November.

Not the Da Vinch back upward, polls have tilted in the GOP's favor.

Q Biden on Wednesday, as he unveiled a three-pronged approach to push gas prices down.

One, releasing the last of the 180 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

that he authorized back in March, two, calling for an increase in oil production, and three,

chastising oil companies for not passing savings on to consumers.

The truth of the matter is that numbers one and three are unlikely to result

in prices dropping in any meaningful way. They address a political reality, and number two

runs headlong into a complicated economic reality. Politico Oil and Gas reporter Ben Lafave

explains, the real reason oil companies aren't ramping up production as much as some would like

...