"Out of control prices have a death grip on millions, putting the squeeze on consumers, threatening the American way of life, forcing decisions no one should have to make. Eating or filling the tank?" -- Larry King

When making yesterday's predictions about what questions Larry King would ask Chevron CEO David O'Reilly, we failed to include a separate category for Larry's love of hyperbole and melodrama, so often on display during the opening moments of the show. Death Grip? Really, Larry? Decisions no one should have to make. Sounds like we're debating whether to pull the plug on great-grandma.

Forgetting Larry's liberal use of dramatic license for a second, the real problem with last night's show on gas prices and energy policy is no different than almost every episode of Larry King Live. Too many guests, too little time for discussion and real debate, and Larry's irritating propensity for focusing more on the 30 seconds he has until commercial break than what his interview subject is actually saying.

Taking a look at last night's transcript, we count eight guests and five viewer questions from the "King Cam." That's a lot to fit into 45 minutes of television, especially when the first two segments are devoted solely to O'Reilly and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Of note, the two guests brought on to talk about the respective energy platforms of Obama and McCain (Bill Richardson and Nancy Pfotenhauer) didn't get a single word in after giving their opening remarks. This is why we miss Tim Russert.

But back to the predictions about the segment with O'Reilly, here are a few we got right, or at least pretty close.

Prediction: "Gas prices ... they're really high .... [dead air, O'Reilly waits for a question] ... how high will they go?"

Reality: "What's going on, oil and gas prices all time highs, your company making billions in profits, explain." [Notice that's still not a question.]

Prediction: "So it's not your fault."

Reality: "Nobody's to blame?"

Prediction: "What do you think about that Windfall Tax?" [Follow-up question: "Okay."]

Reality: King showed a clip of Obama talking about his support for a windfall profits tax, gave O'Reilly his chance to say why it's such a bad idea, and then followed that up by ... telling the viewers what was coming up next.

Prediction: "Offshore drilling ... tell us why it's a good thing."

Reality: "You favor the offshore drilling?"

Prediction: "Hybrid cars .... Wouldn't it save us lots of gas if everyone drove them."

Reality: "Would you be happy if everybody in America bought a low engine car that don't run on much gas?"