Is President Obama a Lost Cause Environmentally — and What Should Progressives Do? -- ThinkProgress

[RiverStone]

By Joe Romm on Sep 3, 2011 at 10:02 am

This weekend’s question is inspired by the Obama administration’s dreadful decision to do nothing on ozone pollution.

This decision is indicative of what we can expect from the president for the foreseeable future for a few reasons:

The decision was Obama’s alone — Like the upcoming Keystone XL tar sands pipeline decision, Congressional approval isn’t needed for the President on EPA rules.

Unlike the pipeline, whose biggest impacts (on climate) would be decades from now and spread over the entire human race, the decision to do nothing on ozone pollution means millions of Americans — including kids, elderly, and the infirm — will suffer needlessly in the near future.

Relatedly, if your administration can’t figure out how to do messaging to defend clean air for kids, reduced deaths and hospital visits and asthma attacks from air pollution — stuff that is wildly popular with Americans, especially independents — how precisely are you ever going to do messaging on global warming? Oh wait, I know, you aren’t.

more: http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/09/03/311633/is-president-obama-a-lost-cause-and-what-should-progressives-do/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climateprogress%2FlCrX+%28Climate+Progress%29

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[villager]

2. Once he appointed a rancher to Interior, you just kinda knew

...the hope/change thing was out the window on environmental issues.

Environmentally, he's a failure.

[KoKo]

25. seriously...that was a kind of "telling point." Many of us hoped it was just a mistake...

but.....sadly...there seem to be many "mistakes, miscues, flub ups in "Three Dimensional Chess," "Poker Power," and the latest which is "Rope-a-Dope."

Amazing. :crazy:

[Stargleamer]

3. If only Al had run in 2008. ..

we would have been spared Obama's naivete when it comes to Republicans. No way would Al have capitulated like this.

[DirkGently]

4. Political leaders respond ONLY to a threat to their power or position.

[Donnachaidh]

6. so is the problem that they clearly think they have a 2nd term in the bag?

Is this the reason why there is NO movement other than to the right? It seems to be the only sane reason for some of the monumental caves he has been doing.

If that's the case -- please find a less arrogant candidate, before we start seeing debtor's prisons being built, and mills for child labor spring up...

[RiverStone]

7. Can't fathom the reason - other than a dissconnect with his electorate?

:shrug:

[Donnachaidh]

12. I wish it was that simple

I only see 2 possibilities for anyone who is supposed to be as *intelligent* as this president --

1. He really doesn't want a second term, and is pulling enough plugs for people to stay home rather than vote. Which gets him off the hook -- the voters will be blamed.

2. They think they have an absolute lock on the second term. There fore they are pretty much free to do anything asked of them by their corporate sponsors. The *vote for us or those SCARY SCARY republicans* mindset.

Either one is frightening to a working class American. :shrug:

[RiverStone]

19. And either one suggests an --- abuse of power

It's supposed to be about what's best for We The People - at least, that's the ideal. All blurred now and ruled by corporatists.

[Starcats]

24. Shipment of Fail

The quote from a NYT article below frames this for me. Obama is as ideological as anyone else in politics today. Ideological to the point where the obvious is lost on him. His ironclad belief that liberalism and conservatism are anachronistic may be ahead its time in some respects, but he's blinded by a fantasy of a bipartisanship in the NOW. While the right wing cooks up ever more toxic attacks on his presidency, the American people, the environment and animals suffer. Obama's actual Blue Dog conservative politics is why he is a SHIPMENT OF FAIL. He, like any other politician, lied to get elected while taking millions in campaign donations from donors like Goldman Sachs. Team Obama seeks to raise $1 billion in campaign funds for re-S(election) 2012. This guy is about hope, change and the environment? I don't think so. He's about Barack Obama, period.

"The body of Mr. Obama’s writing and experiences before he became a presidential candidate would suggest that he is instinctively pragmatic, typical of an emerging generation that sees all political dogma — be it ’60s liberalism or ’80s conservatism — as anachronistic. Privately, Mr. Obama has described himself, at times, as essentially a Blue Dog Democrat, referring to the shrinking caucus of fiscally conservative members of the party." http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/us/politics/01bai.html

[COLGATE4]

27. I'll take #2 for $500, Alex.

[Harmony Blue]

8. Yes

That is why they are able to move under this veil without much restriction.

[DirkGently]

9. Worse. I think the calculation is that corporatist policy ENSURES re-election. No one fears the left

That has to "change," in my opinion.

[dgibby]

5. This decision negatively affects both me and several members of my

family who are diagnosed with asthma and other chronic respiratory diseases. Considering that we all voted for him, he'd better hope the air quality index is good on election day; otherwise, he'll be losing a lot of votes.

[RiverStone]

11. You would think that all medical groups would loudly oppose this...

Oh that's right, more asthma prescriptions = more $ for pharmaceuticals. Are they in bed together?

That's how cynical I am unfortunately.

[dgibby]

13. This should cheer your up.

The American Lung Association is bringing a lawsuit against the EPA and the Obama Adminstration.

[RiverStone]

16. Not cheer - but anger at the arrogance and stupidity. Does Obama not think of his daughters?

According to the American Lung Association, the weaker standard means that as many as 186 million Americans are currently breathing in unhealthy levels of smog. The EPA's own figures are even more shocking. If the Obama administration set the lower standard of 60 parts per billion, it would prevent 4,000 to 12,000 premature deaths a year by 2020. Even the higher standard of 70 parts per billion would save between 1,500 and 4,300 lives per year. Improved air quality would bring down the number of deaths and hospitalizations every year due to asthma, bronchitis, and other heart and lung conditions.

more: http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/09/obama-breathers-sorry-wait-until-2013

[Mr Deltoid]

10. He buys into the GOP ideology on pollution

Filth = $$

Shit where your children and grandchildren eat and sleep. Regulations just get in the way. At least that is what I see coming from the WH lately.

[dgibby]

14. I wonder if he realizes his children have to breathe this pollution, too.

Political idealogy aside, how could anyone do this to their own children?

[RiverStone]

18. Bingo - just made the same point a couple of posts above.

Really, really, don't get this?! :shrug:

Add the groundwater and fertile growing grounds to be at huge risk if he approves the Tars Sands pipeline and the deal with BIG OIL will be sealed. Lets hope he at least returns to sanity for this before his decision is finalized.

[Webster Green]

15. That has been obvious for some time now.

He put the US Coast Guard and the EPA under the control of BP during the disaster in the gulf.

He doesn't give a shit about the environment, or us. He is rather fond of predator corporations like big oil and Monsanto.

We're fucked!

[Uncle Joe]

17. I would like to be wrong but I believe so.

Thanks for the thread, Riverstone.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Fuddnik]

21. The whole government is a lost cause.

It's completely dysfunctional. The Executive, the Legislative, and the Judiciary.

And a 230 year old constitution needs some serious updating.

[Enthusiast]

22. All that is needed is

overturning Citizens United, ending corporate person-hood and publicly financed elections.

[Fearless]

23. Pretty much. He is a lame duck president.

[BNJMN]

26. More like a lame ___ president.

Can't believe we suffered through 8 years of Bush for a moderate.
WTF were we thinking? And it'll happen again and again until

A) We take over the DNC and Campaign Contributions and how they get divvied up.
B) We take a page from TP and take over a sizable chunk of congress to grind everything to a halt.

Maybe it's worth 10 more years of Republican control
*IF* WE GET A TRULY LIBERAL PRESIDENT IN POWER AFTERWARDS.

:grr: :grr: :grr:

[Fearless]

30. To be fair I am not willing to entertain Republican control...

Yet at the same time that is no excuse for de facto Republican control.

[COLGATE4]

28. Onc e again he's proving his absolute naivete by taking a

Rethuglican position, hoping hope against hope that this time they'll really like him and believing that the Democratic base doesn't have anywhere else to go.

[Hawkowl]

29. Yes, he is. nt.

[Doctor_J]

31. Can someone name ANY issue he's left-of-center on?

He thinks gay rights should be left to the states, he thinks tax breaks for the hyper-rich will fix the economy, his DoJ is prosecuting pot smokers while leaving elections thieves alone, he's escalated our tropp counts and budget in the Middle East...why would progressives vote for him at all?

[pscot]

32. Obama or Perry

And if Perry wins the Senate will likely fall as well. Think about it.