« Tallying The Take | Main | He's Quacking! »
October 16, 2007
Oh How The Climate Has Changed
Not so long ago, the Republican establishment scoffed at the notion of climate change as a legitimate policy issue. To them, folks who raised environmental issues were nothing but anti-American tree huggers, and were simply not taken seriously. What a difference a few years makes.
The Democratic presidential field has predictably devoted plenty of bandwidth to to climate change - after all, it is a very important issue for many Democratic primary voters. Al Gore's Nobel Prize announcement last week was simply the latest confirmation for many progressives that their concerns about environmental degradation have finally attained mainstream legitimacy. Indeed, national polling shows that a large majority of Americans favor taking much more serious steps to combat climate change.
Perhaps overwhleming public sentiment explains the jarring about-face on the environment by the 2008 GOP presidential field. Wednesday's NY Times notes the dramatic shift on the issue by the Republican hopefuls.
The GOP field is divided on the climate change issue, not that there is a real problem mind you, but about how to address it. John McCain, despite, or perhaps because of his low standing in the polls these days, is out in front of the field -- calling for higher mileage standards and emission caps. Additonally, social conservative candidates Mike Huckabee and Sam Brownback are leading the charge from a religious stewardship of the earth point of view.
Predictably, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney say there is a problem, but favor solutions such as greater use of "clean" coal rather than meaningful change. But if there rhetoric isn't sufficiently change-oriented to suit you, just wait a bit. Both Romney and Rudy's flexible relationship with the truth will no doubt result in further lip service on the issue at the politically opportune time.
Despite our cynicism about the political players involved, however, we glad this issue finally seems to be penetrating public consciousness. Here's hoping it leads to real solutions.
Posted by houtopia at October 16, 2007 11:09 PM