In a report for "The Campaign Spot" on the National Review yesterday, Jim Geraghty gently broke the bad news to conservatives that yes, global warming will be an issue in the 2008 campaign, and the Republican party will concede the time has now come to act to reduce the risks.
To make his case, first Geraghty gave the mike to a fire-breathing Giuliani supporter named Robert Tracinski, who declared for Real Clear Politics:
But the biggest problem for Republicans with McCain’s candidacy is his stance on global warming . McCain has been an active supporter of the global warming hysteria–for which he has been lauded by the radical environmentalists–and he is a co-sponsor of a leftist scheme for energy rationing. The McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act would impose an arbitrary cap on America’s main sources of energy
production, to be enforced by a huge network of federal taxes and
regulations.
The irony is that McCain won in South Carolina
among voters whose top concern is the economy. Don’t these voters
realize what a whole new regime of energy taxes and regulations would
do to the economy?
No matter what happens, there is likely to be a huge debate in the
coming years over global warming–whether it’s really happening,
whether it’s actually caused by human beings, and what to do about it.
But if the Republicans nominate McCain, that political debate will be
over, and Al Gore and the left will have won it–thanks to John McCain.
Geraghty let that stand, thinking he had given Tracinski enough rope.
He went on to try and reason with the NR crowd (for more, please see the rest of the post at Gristmill).
Kit Stolz 