According to John Podesta, Clinton to make Climate Change a central issue

[Capt. Obvious]

....

Podesta’s tweet was retweeted about 130 times in the first four hours but none of the retweets were by verified users, other than one ThinkProgress reporter — journalists at major media outlets typically have verified Twitter accounts. The tweet has also not been embedded in a news article by any major publication.



This would make Hillary’s campaign the first major presidential campaign ever to make combating climate change a central issue.

Al Gore, who would go onto win a Nobel Prize for his advocacy of climate change, did not make it a key issue of his campaign for president in 2000. The environment section of John Kerry’s 2004 website did not mention climate change. (The issue gets one paragraph in a 14-page white paper on the campaign’s environmental policies.)

In 2008, Clinton and Obama more readily acknowledged climate change as a serious issue, but is was hardly a central policy issue in a campaign dominated by the fallout from the Iraq war and the emerging economic collapse.

....

Think Progress

If true, this will be a giant red arrow in the ground clearly defining her against any potential Republican opponent.

Polling generally shows the issue at the lower end of issues important to voters so I'm not sure if this will help win an election on its own - she will need to make it a driving issue to put this clear contrast front and center.

We've already wasted too much time watching oceans rise.

[SidDithers]

1. She's obviously pandering...

Sid

[justiceischeap]

2. How dare she actually care about the world we'll be leaving her granddaughter.

You're right, though, she's pandering.

[morningfog]

3. As it should be. Great to hear. I look forward to details.

[procon]

4. Until more top tier public figures make it a serious issue, the public isn't going to

to pay attention. Attitudes won't change until people see that the VIPs are onboard and discussing the facts instead acting like idiots with their heads stuck in the sand.

[Oilwellian]

5. .

[A Little Weird]

6. Clean energy?

I'm glad she at least acknowledges that climate change is real. But I don't think she can be credited with pushing clean energy with her support of fracking.

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/09/hillary-clinton-fracking-shale-state-department-chevron

http://grist.org/climate-energy/where-does-hillary-clinton-stand-on-fracking/

[jalan48]

7. It must be polling well.

[JDPriestly]

8. If her idea of clean energy is natural gas, we in California don't need it.

I will have to see the details of her proposals before I drop my skepticism.

I was disappointed with Obama on clean energy. He has handed out so many permits to drill in the ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

We have become energy independent to a great extent under Obama. And that is good. But we have not invested nearly enough in solar and wind energy.

[Orsino]

9. Sounds great. n/t

[William769]

10. Kick & recommended.

[H2O Man]

11. This is an area

where I have great differences with Hillary Clinton. She is a fracking advocate. It is the surest way to poison the water supply.

[The2ndWheel]

12. No politician is going to do that

They're trying to win.

Our environmental issues are a paradox. The more we try to fight climate change, the more we try to alter our environment, which is how we got here in the first place. It's not something we can fight or tackle.

[zappaman]

13. Rec and kick!

[mmonk]

14. As long as fracking is endorsed, I can't go along.

But I don't know who besides Bernie is against it.

[NET]

15. I knew it

[Arugula Latte]

16. Sounds good, but I think it's just going to be too little too late.

It seems like we're in an irreversible environmental spiral. We're rearranging our seats on the Titanic, as the saying goes.

Had the presidency not been stolen for Bush, this might have been a different story.

[Dawgs]

18. Yep. n/t

[randome]

20. In the 60s we always assumed we would be wiped out by a nuclear war.

We pulled back from that and we can lick this problem, too.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[Arugula Latte]

22. I hope so.

But pushing a button or not pushing a button was always a clear, distinctive choice. This is different -- we've set in motion events that seem impossible to reverse before they affect most life on the planet in a very drastic, awful way.

[Dawgs]

17. Does that mean she's against Keystone?

[karynnj]

19. Think Progress is wrong on Kerry -- he made climate change more of an issue in 2004

Last edited Mon Apr 13, 2015, 03:53 PM - Edit history (4)

Gore made it more of an issue AFTER he lost -- even though before the 1988 election he wrote Earth in the Balance. He did not run on it in 2000, because he was told - by people similar to Podesta - that it was not an issue that moved votes.

Kerry actually did include climate change - as part of his standard stump speech and spoke of it EVERY SINGLE DAY. That part of his speech was one of the things that most impressed me about Kerry in 2004. He argued that that fighting climate change was a winner in 5 ways - in addition to the imperative that it was essential. He said 1) it led cleaner air and 2) cleaner water, 3) it led to better health, and 3) being an international leader would help the economy as those products became a large part of the economy 4) it reduced dependency on an unstable middle east. (From memory -- and he had to say it a lot for me to remember it 11 years later!)

Kerry was an environmentalist long before climate change was an issue. He was very involved in healthier seas, clean water, and climate change. A major accomplishment he actually already had was that as LT Governor he (at Dukakis' request) led the effort for a cap & trade on sulfur dioxide that the eastern governors (and eastern Canada) adopted -- that was the model for the C&T in the Clean Air act.

The fact is that climate change was a big issue for Gore and for Kerry - going back decades. It actually wasn't a big issue for EITHER Obama or Clinton in 2008. (There was a Stephanopolis This Week show where John and Teresa were on speaking of This Moment on Earth - when they were asked - given that JK was not running - who was good on this issue. Kerry answered that he wanted to push any Democrat to a strong position on it; Teresa more directly answered "No - that none were all that strong on the issue.) This is ridiculous and more than anything shows basic dishonesty OR - almost worse - the complete lack of attention paid by some partisan Democrats to what our nominee in 2004 stood for.

It was also KERRY who suggested to Obama that in conversations he saw there was a possibility of a US/China pact and he was key to that negotiation -- as was Podesta at the very end. Even then this was not a new idea - Chu and Clinton had wanted such a deal earlier = as they worked with India. Obama/Clinton/Kerry and others in the administration have all been working on this - and making some progress. The fact is that the Obama administration (including HRC) have made major steps on climate change -- and HRC has a great story here on her role.

That said - and it is NOT towards Podesta, who would certainly not agree that JK did not make this an issue, or Clinton -- it is to the ignorance of the reporter. There is no need to diminish anyone else to raise Clinton. In fact, a better case here is that Clinton may very well need to lead any effort -- if Obama/Kerry and the world get a treaty in Paris. That will be in 2016. Any guess the year when the treaty will likely need ratification.

IF THIS IS YOUR ISSUE _ LIKE HRC OR NOT ___ it could mean the US ratifying this or not.

I took Podesta being the campaign manager as a very good sign for Climate Change as that is one thing he worked on for Obama -- and I remember a CAP speech, that he introduced back in I think 2006 or 2007 that Kerry gave dealing with working with China on climate change.

[hrmjustin]

21. Glad to hear it.I am really looking foward to this campaign.

[karynnj]

23. Note that Podesta worked for Obama on the final details of the US/China pact

Last edited Mon Apr 13, 2015, 04:36 PM - Edit history (1)

That she made him campaign manager is a good sign -- especially because he will likely get an important role in her administration.

That said - the Paris climate change talks are in 2016. The interim (Peru) talks were mildly successful - largely because of the surprise a few months before of the US/China pact.

I remember a 2010 talk in DC for CAP, where Podesta introduced Kerry and the topic was the US and China working jointly on lowering both of our carbon usage. There were several Chinese officials there as well. Interesting they both ended up playing significant roles on that. (It took a lot of playing with google - but here it is - http://www.foreign.senate.gov/press/chair/release/chairman-kerry-delivers-a-speech-on-us-china-relations )

It was clear from his own comments that Podesta had made climate change important on CAP's agenda.