Last Night's Forum on Global Warming with Kucinich, Edwards and Clinton

By: Lowell
Published On: 11/18/2007 9:26:07 AM

MyDD has an excellent "live blog" of last night's League of Conservation Voters/Grist environmental forum with Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton.  I watched most of it but took a break from live blogging.  My conclusion agrees fully with Todd Beeton's at MyDD:

While Kucinich is in the clouds, Clinton has her feet planted firmly on the ground, Edwards is somewhere in between, in a good way. Along the same lines, the specifics and call for pragmatism that Senator Clinton brought to her answers embodied her claim that she is "ready to hit the ground running on day one." Both of them had extremely strong performances.

Meanwhile, the Republican candidates continue to ignore global warming, deny its existence, or minimize its seriousness.  This, despite now OVERWELMING scientific evidence that it's actually far worse and more urgent than even the worst-case scenarios of a few years ago.  For that reason alone, there's no way anyone who cares about the planet can vote Republican in 2008.  Period.  Whatever the flaws of the Democratic candidates, at least there's some hope of preventing planetary catastrophe with them.  With Republicans, there is none.

P.S.  Just to show how out-of-touch Republicans are on this, even OPEC(!!!) acknowledges global warming and is moving tentatively to deal with it.  Bush/Cheney, the Republican presidential candidates, and ExxonMobil apparently are going to hold out even longer than the world OIL CARTEL on this one.  Disgraceful.

Comments



Haven't gotten a chance to watch yet, but ... (TheGreenMiles - 11/18/2007 11:42:11 AM)
I agree Clinton has been a pleasant surprise on the environment.  For all the worry that she'd be the corporate candidate, she's been not just pragmatic in her environmental ideas, but expansive and visionary as well.


Her plan on energy/environment (Lowell - 11/18/2007 11:50:27 AM)
got an "A" grade overall from Gristmill, the environmental blog of Grist Magazine.  These guys are really tough when it comes to the environment, so that's doubly impressive.


Just for clarification (tx2vadem - 11/19/2007 6:02:12 PM)
You really buy that the plan she has out there is something she will put in place if in office?

I'm skeptical given the history of the Clintons.  And Hillary has been a Senator for some time now.  On top of that, she sits on the Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works.  All these great ideas, she now has, why didn't she author legislation as a Senator to get those things done?  I looked through Thomas, and I couldn't find anything substantial on the topic.  Maybe you can.

To me, this just looks like stuff to please the base.  And, of course, she is so sincere about it now, because she wants so much to get your vote.  It's a long ways off, but in two years time, assuming she is president, we can review her performance.



I don't "buy" anything from politicians. (Lowell - 11/19/2007 6:10:27 PM)
As Ronald Reagan once said, "trust, but verify."  Still, Hillary's plan is excellent, and I have no more reason to doubt her than anyone else in the field. 


Anyone else in the field (Lowell - 11/19/2007 6:11:04 PM)
I mean on the Democratic side. The Republicans are pretty much hopeless on the environment, with the possible exception of John McCain.


I certainly don't buy the Clinton 'plan' (greenfuture - 11/20/2007 10:49:27 PM)
Bill Clinton did squat for climate while he was in office, triangulating his way to just keep both the greens and the corporations content.  I don't think Hillary knows a bit about actually mobilizing on the issue, really.