I am very weary of President Obama’s—and people of his ilk such as Al Gore’s—presumption that they get to say when the debate is over. The president pulled that card out of his pocket again in Copenhagen. From the story:
“I have to be honest, as the world watches us ... I think our ability to take collective action is in doubt and it hangs in the balance,” Obama told the COP-15 plenary session as hope faded for anything more than a vague political agreement. “The time for talk is over, this is the bottom line: We can embrace this accord, take a substantial step forward. We can do that, and everyone who is in this room will be part of an historic endeavor, or we can choose delay,” he said. He added, “The question is whether we will move forward together, or split apart. … We know the fault lines because we’ve been imprisoned by them for years.”
I know you don’t like open debate. But you don’t get to say when the time for talk is over. Freedom is inefficient fellas, and we have no obligation to stop advocating for what we believe to suit your timetables. The talk will end when you (or we) win the debate—and so far, you (we) haven’t. So no, we will not shut up.
This show of presidential commitment was apparently not enough for the hysterics over at the Guardian. From the story:
In his address, Obama did say America would follow through on his administration’s clean energy agenda, and that it would live up to its pledges to the international community. “We have charted our course, we have made our commitments, and we will do what we say,” Obama said. But in the absence of any evidence of that commitment the words rang hollow and there was a palpable sense of disappointment in the audience. Instead, he warned African states and low island nations who have been resisting what they see as a weak agreement that the later alternative — no agreement — was far worse...The lacklustre speech proved a huge frustration to a summit that had been looking to Obama to use his stature on the world stage – and his special following among African leaders – to try to come to an ambitious deal.
Some days, as my sainted dad used to say, you can’t win for losing.
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