Nine percent of Americans blame President Barack Obama and the U.S. government for this year's spike in gasoline prices, according to a new Washington Post/Pew Research Center poll.

DAN BERMAN | 5/6/11 9:04 AM EDT
--politico--

An additional 5 percent cited "not drilling enough" as an answer to the poll's open-ended question of who or what is to blame for high prices. By contrast, 30 percent blamed a combination of greed, profit and speculation. Nineteen percent pegged unrest in the Middle East and North Africa. As of Friday morning, the average price of a gallon of regular gas was $3.984, down a tenth of a cent from Thursday, according to AAA. The poll was conducted by phone with 1,006 respondents from April 28 to May 1, with a sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.