MY MEMORY'S NOT GREAT, AND THIS IS A SWING STATE,...:

Have the greens failed? (BEN SMITH, 12/4/09, Politico)

[A]s green activists converge on the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, their sense of disappointment is palpable, even with the eleventh-hour decision by President Obama to attend the summit on Dec. 9. What was seen in the heady days of 2007 and 2008 as the likeliest venue for a new international agreement on carbon emissions now caps a year of mixed results. While the American political system has, in many ways, seen a total transformation in its capacity and willingness to tackle such a transcendent issue, some of the traditional obstacles remain — primarily the age-old laws of partisan politics and the limits on how much ambitious legislation Congress can absorb at one time.

At the apex of the 2008 campaign, with the League and other groups leaning hard on a crowded field of presidential candidates, and congressional Democrats shifting steadily toward the view that action would be required, a Democratic victory seemed likely to mean a treaty in the new president’s first year.

...but does anyone recall seeing a single ad from the UR in the general election that so much as mentioned capping carbon emissions?

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 4, 2009 7:30 AM