For John McCain, global warming is the magic silver bullet, the issue that will unite liberals, moderates and evangelical conservatives into a powerful electoral force that will push him into the White House.
For the liberals and moderates, the McCain campaign has been clear that when the question is how he distinguishes himself from being a third term for President Bush, answers one, two and three all boil down to his stance on climate change (despite the fact that Bush has slowly moved toward McCain on the issue).
This morning the McCain campaign made it clear they also see the issue as their bridge to evangelical conservative voters, with the campaign sending out a statement from an organization named the Evangelical Climate Initiative that praised McCain's speech yesterday.
"Sen. McCain's support of strong policy on emissions is in line with the evangelical community. In a recent Ellison Research poll, 84 percent of evangelicals said they favored federal legislation to reduce the emissions that contribute to global warming," the ECI said in its statement, mailed by the McCain campaign to reporters this morning. Curiously, that statement is not yet posted on the "press" section of ECI's Web site.
Still to be seen is whether climate change is enough of a concern for evangelicals to overcome their other concerns over Mr. McCain, and whether global warming trumps issues such as the Iraq war and McCain's newfound support for the Bush tax cuts in the minds of liberal and moderate voters.
And Mr. McCain may face another problem. Concerned Women for America, a powerful conservative lobby, says some of ECI's top funders are also key backers of abortion providers in the U.S.
— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times
Comments (15)
Interesting that 'Evangelicals' would consider backing abortion. I wonder what Evangelical means to them????
Posted by Bill Williamson | May 13, 2008 11:52 AM
I'm voting for McCain and you can't stop me.
Posted by LC | May 13, 2008 12:08 PM
The magic silver bullet? McCain must really be suffering the effects of Alzheimer's disease if he honestly believes that this single issue will push him into the White House. While his stance on cleaning up the environment is great, there is such a big mess to clean up that he'll need a lot more than this to be given the chance.
Posted by Don | May 13, 2008 12:11 PM
There seems to be a major disconnect between the politicization of global warming trends and the larger question -- who is responsible for the source of carbon dioxide emissions. Both Senator McCain's position and some rather strange evangelical communications seem to direct the country towards a horse-and-buggy economy while preserving the right to incinerate whomever they please. Surely shock-and-awe bombing has contributed more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than a highway full of old cars or a factory in China.
Posted by Margherite Williams | May 13, 2008 12:25 PM
Weird.
Posted by jimmy | May 13, 2008 12:27 PM
McCain has consistantly put the interests of illegal aliens over the interests of his fellow citizens. His efforts to legalize people who have invaded this country border on treason. No matter who the Democrats nominate, I could not vote for someone I have so little respect for.
Posted by Paul L | May 13, 2008 12:42 PM
If the fertilized egg is a human being from its moment of conception then, to be consistent, a Certificate of Humanhood/Conception/Personhood should be required and if a live healthy birth is not forthcoming in a normal time frame an investigation be initiated to determine where that mission person is or why that person appears in damaged condition. Usual penalties would follow where appropriate. Absent that demand it's just a claim without substance.
Posted by Valjean | May 13, 2008 12:49 PM
Ive heard this same rhetoric before from the greens about evangelicals and the enviornment--
I have seen no evidence of evangelicals being enviornmentalists- Its some demographic Pr firms or the greens came up with nutty--
Mcaine has alzhiemers or parkinsons? I keep hearing this is it true? he sure seems to behave odd at a times and i though i saw a little tremble in his hands as he walks-
Posted by Abalone | May 13, 2008 12:51 PM
If McCain is so concerned with the environment, and in opposition to Bush, then why wasn't the issue more important to him when he fell in line behind Bush during 2 presidential elections and 95% of his voting in the senate. It's a trojan horse for Grandpa Munster. Don't buy into it!
Posted by Jeff Smith | May 13, 2008 12:54 PM
To consider this issue a "silver bullet" for McCain among evangelicals is definately over the top. At best this issue is undecided among many evangelicals, and at worst it is a source of controversy that could actually backfire on McCain if he leans too far to the left.
Posted by John Stovall | May 13, 2008 12:54 PM
And the hockey stick shaped graph of the warming would likely track one, in the same time frame, of the development and exploding increase of wireless communication whose energy frequencies activate, thus warm, just as those from the Sun, with no built in regular cooling periods. Radio, data transmission, TV, cell phones, remotes, sensors, locaters, trackers, satellites, internet, CBs, pagers, radar, Blackberries and an increasing number of other handhelds, etc. all create or utilize energy frequencies that keep the atmosphere in a constant state of activity, aka: warmth, relentless and non-stop. Just think of how many such communication frequencies are hitting you body right now. It's not tuned to convert them to what you can be aware of but they are there, awake and asleep, they are there. It's not "Can you hear me now?" It's "Can you feel me now?" Guess what?
Posted by Valjean | May 13, 2008 12:56 PM
Good for John McCain. Now all he needs to do is stop the $200 billion a year nosebleed in Iraq, the torture, the corruption, the secrecy, the wiretaps, the cronyism, the deficit spending, and the job drain, the corporate handouts, etc., etc., etc.,...and I'll vote for him.
Posted by Mark M. | May 13, 2008 1:01 PM
Funny that McCain is getting behind climate change. McCain was the only senator to score a big fat zero on the environmetal report card done by the League of Conservation Voters.
Posted by Kierstyn | May 13, 2008 3:56 PM
The problem for politicians trying to solve these national-level problems is that everyone says they're for reducing the national debt, reducing emissions, etc., but when you start asking questions about whether they favor or disfavor the specific steps that would be needed to fix the problems, they're all against the specific steps. A lot could be done, for example, if car engines were limited to 4 cylinders and truck engines were limited to 6 cylinders. This could have been done decades ago, but people wanted more powerful vehicles. And this is a relatively simple problem to fix compared to re-structuring the American system of suburban development so that buses and trains can be more effectively used later on when we have even less oil than we have today. And that's just two small components of the overall problem on this one particular issue of energy usage. A lot of problems that could have been addressed 30 years ago were swept under the rug by Reagan, Clinton and Bush Junior. To his credit, Bush Senior actually signed legislation to burn cleaner coal and of course Jimmy Carter pushed alternative energy from practically the first day in office. But 8 years of relatively focused action can't make up for 24 years of neglect. I feel sorry for whoever is the next president- whether it's McCain, Obama or Hillary Clinton.
Posted by George Robertson | May 13, 2008 5:15 PM
Uneducated is the most common ground between McCain and evangelicals.
Posted by lonnie kasina | May 21, 2008 7:34 PM