Is this Bush’s most cunning sabotage of the Democrats?

08Jul08

With the final count down to the end of his presidency in full throttle, today George Bush has finally committed to a long-term plan to cut the US’ carbon emissions by 50 per cent. That’s right folks, that champion of all things green – and no I don’t refer to the dollar – is going to help save the world.

Furthermore, the humanitarian has signed a deal to cancel debt for the world’s 15 poorest countries and has passed a bill through Congress that will finally deliver a public health system in the US. Hell, it’s the Democrats coming into power next – they want change, lets give them some and a real big headache for their treasury.

While the previous paragraph may be fiction, the first was not. George Bush has relented on an issue he was dedicated to beligerantly refusing to negotiate on. In fact, after refuting climate change’s very existence, despite all scientific evidence to the contrary, and turning his back on Kyoto the best thing Captain Planet has ever done for the climate was give Al Gore the free time to make An Inconvenient Truth.

Today’s decision, however, indicates Bush has always been alive to the urgency of climate change, its realness and importance. The president, it seems, just did not wish to get his hands dirty before, or had other matters higher on his agenda.

Instead, in a master stroke of Republican strategy he is leaving Obama to finance these carbon cuts in the midst of an economic nose dive.

Which brings me to the conclusion that although the old boy may have a truly shocking grasp of grammar, maybe Dubya is not such a numb skull after all. Committing to populist targets the Democrats will most likely buckle under, be it economically or environmentally, gives his party ready made leverage at the next election.

Until that is I remember that the real victim of Bush’s political ducking and diving of environmental issues and elaborate methods of passing the buck will not be Obama, but the environment itself.

Filed under: carbon emissions, climate change, democrats, george bush, obama, politics, republicans   |  Leave a Comment