McCain Differs With Bush on Climate Change

As I've watched John McCain change his stance on both tax and torture to please the Republican base, he has come to seem the most cynical politician currently running for high office. This is a man who will embrace wild eyed religious zealots whom he once described as "agents of intolerance" simply to make himself electable to the nutter section of his own party.

So it's hard not to take anything this man says without also imbuing a very large dose of salt.

So when he starts making proposals on climate change I tend to think that he is simply attempting to play his media given role as "Maverick" and that he's anxious to remind us that he's not George Bush.

Mr. McCain, in a speech at a wind power company, also pledged to work with the European Union to diplomatically engage China and India, two of the world’s biggest polluters, if they refuse to participate in an international agreement to slow global warming.

In the prepared text of his speech, e-mailed to reporters on Sunday night and Monday morning, Mr. McCain went so far as to call for punitive tariffs against China and India if they evaded international standards on emissions, but he omitted the threat in his delivered remarks. Aides said he had decided to soften his language because he thought he could be misinterpreted as being opposed to free trade, a central tenet of his campaign and Republican orthodoxy.

He's making it up as he goes along, giving out prepared texts and then omitting the bits that might actually have some teeth when he finally comes to make the speech itself.

He did though attack Bush, which is the bit he wants us all to remember; it's the bit that says "He's a Maverick!"

“I will not shirk the mantle of leadership that the United States bears,” Mr. McCain said pointedly. “I will not permit eight long years to pass without serious action on serious challenges.”

However, he's sold his soul on too many important issues for me to take that remark remotely seriously. There is simply nothing that this man won't say to be elected.

Leaders of several environmental groups were also sharply critical and noted Mr. McCain’s Senate votes against incentives for energy conservation and alternative energy sources like wind and solar power.

This man is an utter phony who will do and say anything to simultaneously convince Bush supporters that he is just like their man, whilst working to convince the rest of us that he is, in fact, the opposite.

Rarely is cynicism on this level so publicly displayed.

Mr. McCain’s speech, a compilation and sharpening of many of his existing proposals, was most notable as a political document that sought to appeal to the independents he is wooing for November. It put him slightly to the right of center in the environmental debate.

And that's what it's all about, convincing independents that this fraud is a "Maverick".

Don't get me wrong, if he thought there were votes in reducing the effects of climate change he would wholeheartedly embrace the subject, just as he now embraces making the Bush tax cuts permanent and allowing the CIA to continue torturing people. This is a man who will embrace ANYTHING if he thinks there are votes in it.

Even things he has previously opposed as a matter of conscience.

Put more simply, you can't believe a single word that comes out of this desperate man's mouth. What he believes today - fervently - he will not believe tomorrow, if there are more votes in taking that other path.

Only those wishing to be deluded - those same nutters who continue to think that the jury is still out on the Bush presidency - could look at this man and not see a charlatan.

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UPDATE:

The Obama camp have responded to McCain's claims:

"It is truly breathtaking for John McCain to talk about combating climate change while voting against virtually every recent effort to actually invest in clean energy. You don't have to look further than the wind turbine plant where Senator McCain is speaking today to assess his commitment to this cause. While Senator McCain talks about the need to invest in alternative energy, he rejected the single biggest investment in renewable energy in history, including incentives that contributed to a nearly 50% increase in wind power generation last year, and he has repeatedly opposed renewable fuel mandates and higher fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks.

"In stark contrast, I've called for a national standard to ensure that we're using more renewable energy, an expansion of our green energy sector that would create millions of green jobs, and a bipartisan plan to double our fuel efficiency standards. That is why the American people will have a clear choice in November when I am the nominee – between a candidate who opposes real solutions to our energy crisis, and leadership that will solve it once and for all."

Tags: John McCain, climate change, tax cuts, torture, US election 2008