Mitt Romney says one of the biggest challenges facing the country is climate change and that global solutions are needed to combat it.He said this in a speech last night to an investment management conference in Salt Lake City. He made the same point in a speech in California on Monday.
He's a Republican with presidential ambitions, so I don't know what the hell's gotten into him.
Romney's done a flip-flop-flip on this issue:
For Romney, this is his second about-face on climate change. In his 2010 book, No Apology, he called human activity a "contributing factor" to melting ice caps. And in the run-up to the 2012 Republican primaries, Romney backed a reduction in emissions to curb anthropogenic global warming. "I believe based on what I read that the world is getting warmer," he told the Manchester Union-Leader in 2011. "And...I believe that humans contribute to that. I don't know how much our contribution is to that, because I know there have been periods of greater heat and warmth in the past, but I believe that we contribute to that. So I think it's important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may well be significant contributors to the climate change and the global warming that you're seeing."No, it doesn't matter that Senate Republicans just voted to acknowledge the reality of climate change, because, as I said last night, they aren't acknowledging that climate change is any more than a natural variation, and they're not acknowledging that it's a problem (and some are portraying an acknowledgment of climate change as a recognition of the fact that the weather changes).
But as the 2012 campaign evolved, Romney reversed course. He said that he opposed curbing carbon dioxide emissions. He declared, "We don't know what's causing climate change on this planet." Instead, he pledged to increase coal production and ramp up oil exploration. At the Republican convention in Tampa, he turned climate change into a punch line. "I'm not in this race to slow the rise of the oceans or to heal the planet," he remarked during his nomination speech....
Sorry, but Romney simply can't get the 2016 Republican nomination if he's saying that climate change is a problem that needs to be dealt with. Add this to his dreadful numbers in a new Washington Post/ABC poll -- the supposedly electable moderate trails Hillary Clinton by 15 points (though Clinton also has double-digit leads over Jeb Bush, Rand Paul, Chris Christie, and Mike Huckabee) -- and Romney is toast for 2016.
Okay, maybe not -- maybe the poll numbers will change, and (much more important) maybe he'll flip-flop again on the climate. (Would you put that past him?) He'll have to, because this is going to be a litmus test in the 2016 primaries. And he's failing it.
Ha ha .. it's because Romney's ego can't wait to be king, but he know he'll never get the crown with the typically stupid GOP talking points... funny what has happened in our political discourse... just because the tea party is having the biggest tantrum doesn't mean that they represent the views of most of our citizens...
ReplyDeleteRomney is playing a very weird game here. He is also backing a minimum wage increase to $10.50. Could he just have some really good in-house polling telling him things about the GOP rank and file that we don't know?
ReplyDeleteI think it is like him saying that this time he's going to focus on poverty. I think this is just Mitt Romney saying words. Words that are calculated to please the media types. His solution to poverty, global warming and world peace will all be tax cuts for rich fucks. But nobody (in the media) requires your policy to actually address the problems you identify because, who knows, maybe tax cuts for rich fucks will save the planet?
ReplyDeleteI remain unconvinced that Mitt will actually run, but if he does, I think his candidacy will be singular for it's commitment to the non sequitur as a political communication device.
Great last line, mlbxxxxxx.
ReplyDeleteWho really grasped the political prescience of "THE RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH!" guy?
Mitt is a serial liar with no core beliefs - except, of course, the belief in his own superiority, and his belief that everything he touches will make money.
ReplyDeleteWell, if you have hundreds of millions of dollars at your disposal, I suspect that it's rather tough to lose money - especially if you don't throw money at booze, broads ( no insult intended, my female friends! I'm just going for the alliteration), and blow.
Did I say that GCC was a man made problem? Uh.. no.. I didn't say that..
ReplyDeleteReally. Noo.. I didn't..
When it comes to Mitt Romney, I'm left with two facts: 1) just about all of the Republican Presidential "hopefuls" are incredibly, laughably weak (Ben Carson has as much a chance of being the Republican nominee as Mitt Romney has of successfully performing pediatric neurosurgery); 2) in 2012, the Republican Party nominated the political architect of ObamaCare on an anti-ObamaCare platform. The Republican Party will accept anything with the right amount of money backing it; for all their talk about "purity", at the Presidential level, there's nothing that a lot money can't paper over.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that matters is who the majority of the deep pockets in the Republican Party choose. I don't doubt that many of them don't want to back Romney again, but the other options aren't particularly attractive either (is running the brother of Obama's disgraced predecessor, a man whom Republicans try to pretend doesn't exist, really an appealing option), and maybe Romney 3.11 for Workgroups is the version where they finally got the programming right to win a general election in Obama's America. The current reporting (which isn't necessarily particularly accurate) certainly suggests that some big-money people are telling Romney that there will be money there for him to run; if that's the case, I'd at least peg him as the current favorite.
And, yes, there is no Republican, least of all Mitt Romney, who will ever do anything about global climate change. Maybe they'll pray for us. Or at least claim to.
Mitt always came off as the most insincere Insurance salesman in the world - with the added bonus that while he is not stupid he did thing the people he was talking to were very very stupid.
ReplyDelete