Waffles and Grits

Hows this for a Flip Flop (from the latest Cooler Heads newsletter)

In contrast to Vice President Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, references to global warming have been few and far between by the Democratic ticket of Senators John Kerry and John Edwards. Within one week in August, however, the Kerry campaign published its position on the Kyoto Protocol, which vice presidential nominee John Edwards then contradicted at a campaign stop.

On August 19 the campaign issued a document aimed at West Virginia and other coal-producing States that promoted coal as a clean energy source. It states, “John Kerry and John Edwards believe that the Kyoto Protocol is not the answer. The near-term emission reductions it would require of the United States are infeasible, while the long-term obligations imposed on all nations are too little to solve the problem. Unlike the current Administration, John Kerry and John Edwards will offer an alternative to the Kyoto process that leads the world toward a more equitable and effective answer, while preserving coal miners’ jobs.”

Less than a week later, on August 24, the Journal Times of Racine, Wisconsin, published an account of Sen. Edwards’s visit to the town the day before. According to the paper, Edwards “lamented” America's failure to join the Kyoto treaty. “The last thing this president should have done was walk away from Kyoto,” he told the audience. Perhaps co-incidentally, Wisconsin is not a major coal-producing State, and public opinion there favors policies to address global warming.