From L.A. Times humorist Joel Stein, getting all wonkish on us:

If MoveOn and Barack Obama really were going to bravely confront America with hard, necessary truths, they'd tell us how great $4 gas has been for us.  With public transit use nationally at a 50-year high, traffic dropped 2.1% in the first four months of this year across the country.  That mileage reduction — along with people driving smaller cars, and more slowly, to save gas — could mean that 12,000 fewer people will die in traffic accidents this year, according to a study by professors Michael Morrisey at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and David C. Grabowski at Harvard Medical School.  Air pollution has been reduced enough, according to UC Davis economics professor J. Paul Leigh, to prevent 2,200 respiratory-related deaths over the last year.  Less eating out and more walking and biking could mean a 10% reduction in obesity, according to Charles Courtemanche, an assistant economics professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  And, apparently, higher gas prices also keep econ professors employed.