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Climate scandal a political liability for Obama
By: Chris Stirewalt
Political Editor
11/27/09 10:11 AM EST
In my holiday travels, I’ve been amazed by the degree to which the coverage of the hacked emails from East Anglia University's Climate Research Unit has captured the interest of normal people. Even people with better things to do than discuss climate policy and “cap and trade” legislation have paid attention to the evidence of a large-scale scientific conspiracy to keep dissenting opinions about man-made climate change from being heard.
The story is sticking because it has the elements that news consumers love: it cuts against the conventional wisdom and shows powerful people in an embarrassing light.
Many believed that President Obama would end up not attending the Kyoto II climate summit in Copenhagen on Dec. 10 because there was nothing substantive he could say. Climate legislation is in a Congressional coma and there is little hope for a quick revival amid a long-term economic malaise that makes spending untold trillions to prevent change in a global climate that has always been changing seem daffy. But Obama is bowing to the demands of his fellow world leaders who would find snubbing the warming summit to be a serious affront.
His climate talk, which will be part of his Nobel Prize trip to Europe, will have greater political consequences as a result of the email scandal inside the climate industry.
With voters already skeptical about proposals to spend money and organize our society as Al Gore and others direct, the East Anglia leak could leave the president sounding disconnected when he makes his big climate splash in Denmark.
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