It's disingenuous to praise him for strategically timing oil reserve sales for maximum profit and simultaneously praise him for acting effectively to bring down prices. The two are contradictory.
No they aren’t. They can sell at the top, increasing supply, and demand drops shortly after. Supply/demand equilibrium is not always in perfect balance.
That being said; the SPR was never meant to be a for-profit venture and should never be treated as such. I’m guessing it’s not profitable to buy and store petroleum for a couple decades at a time. But it’s nice to make some money from it once in awhile.
