Last September...

"Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction," he told Prime Minister John Howard. "Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit."

As the audience of several hundred people erupted in laughter, Bush corrected himself and joked, "He invited me to the OPEC summit next year."

Unfortunately, Howard (sometimes affectionately known as "Australia's Dick Cheney" isn't going to be able to follow through on that invitation, as he just got his ass handed to him in the Australian elections, and is out of a job.  

Had Bush gone to the OPEC summit, it is widely thought he would have been able to put into effect the long-delayed implementation of his strategy to lower gas prices using merely "the force of his personality."

WAYNE, Mich., June 27 -- Gov. George W. Bush of Texas said today that if he was president, he would bring down gasoline prices through sheer force of personality, by creating enough political good will with oil-producing nations that they would increase their supply of crude. "I would work with our friends in OPEC to convince them to open up the spigot, to increase the supply," Mr. Bush, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, told reporters here today. "Use the capital that my administration will earn, with the Kuwaitis or the Saudis, and convince them to open up the spigot."