Is it me or has the topic of the environment been somewhat missing from the campaign?

[HardWorkingDem]

Or is it me? It seems to me the topic of the environment has sort of been missing a bit.

Possible lack of this topic being seriously discussed a possible path for Gore to enter?

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. Everybody knows that;'s Gore's baby, so they think if they don't

mention it people will forget about Gore.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

2. Candidates don't talk about "the environment" any more.

They'll talk about specific local environmental issues, sure, but nobody touches "the environment" with a 10 foot pole because they think they'll get tarred with the "green whacko" brush. It's stupid yeah, but then most people are pretty stupid.

[mike_c]

3. the corporations who own the front runners would rather they not discuss...

...the environment, thank you.

[MBS]

4. this is a problem with the media as much as with the candidates

Consider: both Al Gore and John Kerry have, by far, the strongest environmental records of any other Senators in the last 20 years. Both have strong continuing commitments to the environment spanning 35 years apiece. Both made the environment strong personal priorities in the their campaigns . Kerry, at least (and I would guess, also Gore) had strong early endorsement of the League of Conservation Voters. (LCV endorsed Kerry early in the primary season, before he won the Iowa caucus). Kerry mentioned the environment in every campaign event. And both Kerry and Gore complained that, in their respective presidential campaigns, the press would not cover environmental issues. . In an NPR interview about 6 months ago or so , Gore recounted how he would give a long speech on environmental topics, then would answer a question afterwards on something else. The next day, the press coverage would be focused on the topic of the Q and A period, but said nothing about his environmental speech. Similarly, in one of his talks this spring about his new book , This Moment on Earth , John Kerry mentioned that he not only at least mentioned the environment in every single speech of his campaign; he also mounted several environmental-specific events in every region of the country, including one in the lair of the enemy, in Houston, Texas. Kerry noted that the campaign usually got good local coverage for these events (his mention of an environmental event in New Hampshire sticks in my mind) , but rarely or never got national coverage. Kerry also noted with frustration that in the three debates with Bush, there was only ONE question in a single debate on the environment.

This time around, the problem continues to be the media (again, how often have you heard the moderators of debates ask questions on this issue? how many articles have you read about the candidates' records on these issues? how often is the environment included as a topic in polling? ) .

But the 2008candidates also are part of the problem. Although all of the Dem candidates pay lip service to the problem of climate change, and certainly none would be like George Bush, it 's also true that none of them have the truly distinguished environmental record of either Gore and Kerry; all of the current crop are on a lower tier. . . which is too bad because if there were ever a time that we REALLY needed a president who was totally on the ball on environmental issues, it is now. . Dodd does have a decent environmental voting record, and in this week's debate he did mention his carbon-cap proposal , which is the most substantive environmental plan offered by any of the candidates. And Richardson talked about his energy experience, etc..
But we really do need someone with Gore's or Kerry's level of expertise..

[zalinda]

5. Edwards has been mentioning it quite a lot

and has gotten at least one endorsement from an environmental group that has over 100,000 members. I don't remember their name, sorry. But, I've seen a number of his videos and he does mention being against coal fired plants, and for finding other sources of energy.

zalinda

[Telly Savalas]

6. So if this is the fault of the corporations and media

is it the fault of the corporations and media that there aren't any threads about the environment on the first page GD?