Exclusive Interview With President Obama On Global Warming

First published on ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, which was recently named one of Time magazine’s Top 25 blogs of 2010.

JR: Invisible Obama, I must confess that all these years I was eating lunch at home between blog posts I had no idea you were sitting right next to me. But Clint Eastwood opened my eyes — and ears — and for that I’m grateful.

IO:

JR: I’m sorry. You’re right.  You’re very busy. You have a big speech tonight and President Clinton is a tough act to follow so let’s get right to this. First, what did you think of Clint’s decision to interview you at the RNC?

IO:

JR: Quoting Magnum Force, that’s funny. I’ll post the video:

And what did you think of Mitt Romney’s mockery of your pledge to “slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet”?

IO:

JR: Well, I can’t print that….  Just kidding. Yes, it’s true Romney’s policies would speed the rise of the oceans and slow the healing the planet. Yes, he apparently believes that rising seas lift all yachts. But your clear understanding of the problem raises the question: Why have you and your administration been treating climate change like Voldemort — “The Threat-That-Must-Not-Be-Named.”

IO:

JR: You can’t be serious. You can’t say you have been talking about global warming the whole time, but it has fallen on deaf ears. It wasn’t in the State of the Union address.

IO:

JR: It was in your State of the Union address, the one no one heard? I’m puzzled. So you’re not really Barack Obama?

IO:

JR: Oh, you’re Obama’s conscience. Well, that explains a lot…. But not everything. Given that the Democratic platform correctly asserts — “We know that global climate change is one of the biggest threats of this generation – an economic, environmental, and national security catastrophe in the making” — tell me why in over 80 speeches in the first two days of the convention there has been so little attention drawn to this threat posed by unrestricted carbon pollution, just a couple of oblique references.

IO:

JR: Very funny. Yes, carbon pollution is invisible, just like you. But its effects have become painfully visible now — a climate system on steroids with record-smashing extreme weather, including droughts, heat waves, wildfires and deluges. Why is no one talking about that?

IO:

JR: Just as I suspected. I knew the White House communications team had muzzled just about everyone in the administration on the subject — and had been telling major progressive political leaders not to talk about climate change during the debate about the climate bill. So they still are. As you must know, however, that’s just nutty. Pretty much every major poll and every major social scientist makes clear that climate action and clean energy are wedge issues, ones that split the tea party extremists from Independents  and even many moderate Republicans:

• Pew Poll: Clean Energy Is A Political Wedge Among Republicans
• Bombshell: Democrats Taking “Green” Positions on Climate Change “Won Much More Often” Than Those Remaining Silent
• Independents, Other Republicans Split With Tea-Party Extremists on Global Warming

IO:

JR: Tell you about it? Are you saying White House comms muzzled you, too, Obama’s conscience, which is why only Clint Eastwood and I can hear you?

IO:

JR: I feel your pain. Let’s have a drinking game for tonight’s convention speech. The same one I proposed for the State of the Union:

1. The first time the President uses the phrase “climate change” or “global warming,” down the drink of your choice.
2. The second time, empty out the liquor cabinet.
3. The third time, it’s a weekend in Las Vegas with Charlie Sheen or Chelsea Handler.

IO:

JR: No worries, neither do I.

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