Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Palin's Finger-in-the-Wind Pandering Flip-Flops on Global Warming


Last Friday, Mitt Romney was conducting a New Hampshire Town Hall, when he was asked about Global Warming/Climate Change. Romney answered the query by stating his belief the Earth is getting warmer and man may have some role in causing it. Romney’s response set off a furor within the Talk Radio and Blogosphere circles, culminating in Conservative potentate Rush Limbaugh to proclaim, “Bye, bye Nomination.” 

However, Rush and Co. may find they have their collective asses in a bit of a sticky wicket, considering Romney’s potential 2012 GOP rival, Sarah Palin also once believed in Global Warming.

That’s right, you read that correctly.  

Sarah Palin believed in Global Warming.  And apparently "man-made" global warming at that.

"I believe that man's activities certainly can be contributing to the issue of global warming, climate change." - Sarah Palin, Sept 2008

Palin not only spiritedly endorsed the belief as John McCain’s 2008 running mate, but felt so strongly about the issue, as to establish a sub-cabinet office, to address concerns about the issue while serving as Alaska’s Governor. And that was well before she was asked to comply with McCain campaign policy.


From the Alaskan Government website on Climate Change:  

“On September 14, 2007, former Governor Sarah Palin signed Administrative Order No. 238, officially forming the Alaska Climate Change Sub-Cabinet (see Press Release). The Sub-Cabinet is charged with preparing and implementing an Alaska Climate Change Strategy. This will be a transparent document which deals with state policies for anticipated climate change.

The Sub-Cabinet's strategy will discuss:  

·        Building the state's knowledge of the actual and foreseeable effects of climate warming in Alaska

·        Developing appropriate measures and policies to prepare communities in Alaska for the anticipated impacts from climate change

·        Providing guidance regarding Alaska's participation in regional and national efforts addressing causes and effects of climate change  

On September 21, 2007, former Governor Palin signed on as an Observer to the Western Climate Initiative (WCI). The WCI is a collaboration launched in February 2007 between the Governors of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington to meet regional challenges raised by climate change. Other States and Canadian Provinces have joined, some as partners, some as observers.” 

During the 2008 campaign, Palin seemed to be in agreement with McCain and the newly adopted GOP platform accepting GW exists. But Palin did not believe that man was the cause. Evidently, that did not sit well back at McCain campaign headquarters, so Palin, as only she can, embarked on a verbal tour of reiterating her positions. According to ABC News ( yes I know a disreputsable source): 

The subject was global warming, covered in Chapter 2 of ABC's multi-part interview with the Alaska governor whom John McCain cast as his running mate. Just a few weeks ago, in an interview with conservative Newsmax, Palin had this to say:  

‘I'm not one ... who would attribute [global warming] to being man-made’ 

“Asked about that view by anchorman Charlie Gibson in a clip played on "Nightline," her initial response was: "I believe that man's activities certainly can be contributing to the issue of global warming, climate change." 

A shift, to be sure, but note the use of "can be" instead of "are."

But to be fair, Palin’s position on Global Warming would best be expressed by the Governor herself. So here are to clips of Palin articulating her positions on the issue, on two separate occasions.

Now Palin, in the opinion of this author, was in a position to act responsibly while Governor, to review the scientific research at that time and act accordingly. And she did. Palin has also been against the Liberal big government policy solutions, such as Cap & Trade, American Only compliance on clea air initiatives and any indusrty regulations which would hamper growth of the US economy or energy production. In fact, Palin’s former positions on the issue were basically Mitt Romney’s positions on the issue.

In April 2009, just a few months before Palin resigned her Governorship, she gave a speech, in which she seemed to be warming up to some GW solutions.

"Many believe that in order to mitigate these long term and systematic changes it will require a national and global effort to decrease the release of human produced greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. However, simply waiting for low carbon emitting renewable capacity to be large enough will mean that it will be too late to meet the mitigation goals for reducing CO2 that will be required under most credible climate change models, including the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) modeled scenarios"


So again we see Palin addressing human behavior in the role emissions play in the global warming issue and a need to address it.

However, there has been a significant shift in the thinking regarding the entire Global Warming issue, with may on the right taking a decidely more strident and skeptical view, in light of the scandal involving the dubious nature of the scientific research. Talk Radio, a major component of Palin's fan base, led the policy charge. 

Palin appears to have guaged the sentiment on the right was shifting, and in order to curry favor and remain in good stead with them, began taking issue with the science involved. Resorting to her new found talent for social media, in Dedember 2009, Palin tweeted:

"Copnhagn Climate Summit;Obama should boycott in light of bogus "findings"Public leary re:snake oil science,he must take stand on climategate"

 

In February 2010, Palin moved further away from her previously held beliefs, when she gave a speech in  Californina, in which she described the so called studies supporting global climate change a "bunch of snake oil science."
Does this mean Sarah Palin now believes the entire issue is a fraud?

Meanwhile, Romney has maintained his position on GW in a consistent manner since they were established. His response in New Hampshire last week, which was not played on the Rush Limbaugh, outlined Romney’s views, which werefully fleshed out in his book - 'No Apology' - and even generated applause. So while Romney has not flipped and remained true to his beliefs, even in the face of partial right-wing ire and skepticism, the real question is:


Did Sarah Palin, in order to retain the favor of her ardent media supporters, Global Warming deniers Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin, sell out her beliefs and flip-flop on the issue, rather than stand up like a true Mama Grizzly, for her previously well stated position, for crass 2012 political opportunism?

And if she did, isn’t that just a form of right-wing “finger in the wind” pandering?

Mama Grizzly indeed.

*******

H/T's to Bosman, Hamaca and Pablo for referencing their excelelnt works in preperation of this post.

25 comments:

Noelle said...

Well said.

Ohio JOE said...

"Romney’s response set off a furor within the Talk Radio and Blogosphere circles, culminating in Conservative potentate Rush Limbaugh to proclaim, “Bye, bye Nomination.”"
Well, that is actually basically true, Mr. Limbaugh did over-react against Mr. Romney on this particular issue. Kinda like the Romneyites over-reacted on Paul revere without bothering to check with the historians.

Anonymous said...

The historian said the original version, not tha palized version of history was the correct one.

Sorry OJ.

Ohio JOE said...

So you are claiming that the British were not warned like some of the other liberals and Romneyites have claimed?

Anonymous said...

OJ....Sarah was wrong. It's time for you to move on. She cannot rewrite history. She has to stop making things up. I wonder if she's wearing flip-flops in Arizona? She should be.

BOSMAN said...

Great Post Doug!

HaHaHaHa!

Rush Limbaugh's Ratings Have Fallen 30% In The Last Six Months

People are SMARTENING UP!

BOSMAN said...

OJ,

"So you are claiming that the British were not warned"

If they were warned, it was by accident. It wasn't THE INTENT of Paul Revere as TRANSLATED by Sarah Palin.

Doug NYC GOP said...

Palin stated on Chris Wallace that part of Revere's mission was to warn the British, not to take our arms, etc.

The fact is he did warn the British, BUT and it's a significant but, because it proves Palin is wrong, he warned the brits AFTER being captured.

He basically told them the jig was up. It was howver, not part of his mission.

And people are to believe that Palin knew her version to be true, because she is so knowledgable, then she should have had the confidence to answer the question in a coherent manner.

That clip is an embarassment.

Now back to Palin and Global Warming Pandering.....

Ohio JOE said...

"It wasn't THE INTENT of Paul Revere as TRANSLATED by Sarah Palin." What???? So you they you know Mr. Revere's intent? The point is it happened. Yes, he was captured, but he could have chose not to warn the British. The British chose not to head the warning and they paid they price. Time will tell if the GOP has learned from Britain's mistake.

Anonymous said...

Excellent work here, my friend!

Take THAT! Rush.

-Martha

Anonymous said...

Great to see your piece over at Race, too!

(Some of those guys need an edumacation--I'm not naming names.)

-Martha

Doug NYC GOP said...

Again, if Palin is so well versed on this Revere business, why didn't she say at the outset or even mention his capture in the follow up versions.

Listen, it's a biger story due to the cover up attempts, rather than if she just ignored it.

BTW,I don't think of Paul Revere as a gotcha topic. If a question like that throws her off, even though she knows her history, perhaps that more than anything else speaks volumes about her being ready for the Oval Office right now. It's not a questions of smarts or knowledge, but of not getting flummoxed.

Doug NYC GOP said...

Bos,

Don't be mad, but Mass Con seemed so desperate and the issue needs to hashed out.

Anonymous said...

Martha,

"edumacation"???? That's a pretty funny mistake!

AZ

BOSMAN said...

No problem Doug, I just have a little different philosophy on this than you.

The way I look at it is, If they want to read better articles than they normally get over there from the beard scratchers, they can come over here and read it or they can wait until one of there front pagers sees it over here and does something similar over there.

Doug NYC GOP said...

Bos,

Thanks.

Post links, not the entire piece.

Got it.

Anonymous said...

Doug NYC GOP, thanks for this. Love it when we get the facts.

Lori*

Anonymous said...

Palin was asked about paul revere while in paul revere's house and she said it was a gotcha question??
now palin supporters trying to change paul revere's wikipedia to coincide with palin's version. I swear if palin ran for president and lost, her supporters would change her wikipedia to show that she won.

Anonymous said...

palin saying that humans contribute to global warming was pointed out by someone in a comment at C4P,they denied it, and this person put up a video as proof, then her supporters say that she was just saying it to support john mccain, so it doesnt count.

FLIP FLOPPER!!

Doug NYC GOP said...

The guy who asked Romney the question (please note that Franklin – Romney was asked)called in the Rush limbaugh show to clarify the context of his question. Evidently, he didn’t like the way Rush set up the Romney bit the day before.

Here is a bit of the exchange, from the Rush web site:

Caller: Your response was that there was evidence even in the last year that established this whole premise of manmade global warming is a hoax.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: “Some scientific conclusions or theories have been so thoroughly examined and tested and supported by so many independent observations and results, that their likelihood of subsequently being found wrong is vanishingly small. This is the case for the conclusions that the Earth system is warming and that much of this warming is very likely due to human activities. And then I asked my question, so that’s the context of the question. Your response was that there was evidence even in the last year that established this whole premise of manmade global warming is a hoax.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: I don’t know where you’re getting the hoax from, sir. I mean I’m looking at –

RUSH: It’s called the University of East Anglia in England and the Hadley Climate Center where they basically made it all up, pure and simple. It’s a hoax. There’s nothing true about it.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_060811/content/01125112.guest.html

Joe said...

Frank: NEEDS TO BE SPREAD AROUND - Mitt has has a petition on facebook to let Obama know unemployed are not just "bumps in the road" - http://www.facebook.com/mittromney?sk=app_213975725309975

Pablo said...

Doug, Great post, expect that it is premised on the assumption that Rush might feel ashamed at his double standards. He does not. As long as he gets rich, facts and rational discourse will never come out of his mouth. He is an enemy of the conservative movement and until we can get rid of the talk radio know-nothings, we are going to have a difficult time succeeding.

Anonymous said...

the queens people refuse to believe she once said man contribute to global warming

Revolution 2012 said...

That wasn't Sarah Palin in those videos, it was Tina Fey!

Anonymous said...

COJONES...and PALIN.
Nothing like a ring of fire with OLIVER NORTH.
And BMP- PHP helps with all the MARMALADE along with PALIZE.
And so does GYRAM HURE.
RICK with ROBERT GATES and SENATORS and with REAKS and RELLY, make it a GROSS affair.
But it's CHOCOLATE CHO, that helped make it " FUNNY" and made it taste good.
With RENCOW.