Republicans are expected to use increasing gas prices to hammer President Barack Obama leading up to the presidential election.

"Gasoline prices are unacceptable. We can do better!" reads a tweet Republican hopeful Newt Gingrich sent within the past week. He also directed supporters to sign an online petition demanding a return to $2.50-a-gallon fuel. 

Rick Santorum has made a point of linking the president to a radical environmenal agenda and bashing Democrats for pushing alternatives to oil. "They want higher energy prices," he said. "They want to push their radical agenda on the public. We need a president who is on the side of affordable energy."

The Republican National Committe is helping coordinate that message with candidates and conservative pundits, asking them to focus on unemployment, the national debt and the cost of gasoline as the three main features of what its "Top Line Messaging" calls the "Obama economy."

Observers expect the White House to respond by pointing to efforts to raise the fuel efficiency of American gas and a recent U.S. Interior Deparment announcement of an expansion of oil exploration in Artic waters.

The Keystone oil pipeline delay also is expected to play a prominent role in the national conversation between now and Election Day.