Mitt Romney continues to shock the environmental community with his extremely clear and forceful contempt for the ecological issues facing us all. His language couldn’t have been any more distinct in his interview on “Meet the Press” yesterday, during which he told NBC’s David Gregory, “I’m not in this race to slow the rise of the oceans or to heal the planet. I’m in this race to help the American people.”
I stand with Daniel Kessler, spokesperson for climate campaign 350.org, who said, “It was ironic that Romney wants to help Americans, but not the planet Americans inhabit.” Exactly right, Daniel. Though, not to quibble about a word, but I’m not sure “ironic” is perfect there. How about “self-contradictory?” Americans aren’t helped by clean air?
My real concern is not Romney would say something like this; the pandering of politicians knows no bounds, and in this regard, Romney is the poster-child. I’m more worried about what this implies: his advisers have determined that a majority of undecided voters are so uninformed, so credulous, and so completely lacking in the most basic reasoning skills that they’ll be unable to see how nonsensical this is. That’s not good.
