Describing Copenhagen
[Guest post by DRJ]
Today marks the end of the Copenhagen climate change summit. In keeping with his tendency to describe everything as unprecedented, President Obama described this as a “meaningful and unprecedented breakthrough” on a global warming deal. Meanwhile, David Corn did not use the word unprecedented to describe Obama’s results in Copenhagen, but he did use the word collapse:
“This was not a speech of persuasion; it was one of positioning. After the morning meeting, Obama and his aides had obviously calculated that a deal was far off—perhaps not even possible—and that there was not much Obama could say in this speech to grease the way to a meaningful agreement. So the US president forcefully presented his stance, maintaining he was willing to compromise, and chastised others for failing to rise above their own interests.
This was widely seen at the Bella Center as a sign that talks had collapsed. American environmentalists appeared stunned, as they grappled with the implications: maybe collective global action to address global warming is not possible.”
Yesterday’s crowd favorite Hugo Chavez had no sympathy for Obama’s failure:
“Chavez, who was not included on the original list of speakers for the final day of the summit, ended the proceedings with bitter references to the Peace Prize-winning Obama as the “Nobel Prize of War.”
“The Nobel Prize of War just finished saying here that he is here to act. Well, show it sir. Don’t leave by the back door,” he said.
Three years after Chavez likened Bush to the devil during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the socialist strongman tore into Obama, claiming Friday that “it still smells like sulfur in the world.”
Chavez may smell sulfur but the rest of the world smells failure. Just ask the Russians, who dropped their own climate change bombshell during the opening days of the Copenhagen summit and effectively ended it before it began.
— DRJ
Well, you know, DRJ, just because we’re stupid, it doesn’t mean the rest of the world is. 😉
nk (df76d4) — 12/18/2009 @ 3:14 pmAh, good old Hugo. The gift that keeps on giving.
Perhaps Mr. Obama can prevail on Florida’s Alan Grayson to invite Hugo to “STFU”. Or would that be too undiplomatic?
navyvet (c99bbf) — 12/18/2009 @ 3:48 pmSo now our POTUS is getting dissed by 3rd – World banana dictators in front of a global audience; he doesn’t remind one of Carter, he is Carter.
Dmac (a964d5) — 12/18/2009 @ 3:56 pmnavyvet,
The brief report I read about what Grayson said was pretty shocking.
DRJ (84a0c3) — 12/18/2009 @ 4:34 pmit takes a jumped up tin horn dictator to recognize another….. no wonder they all give Ear Leader shit.
could i get a side order of schadenfreude with my popcorn please?
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 12/18/2009 @ 4:39 pmWith respect to the Russians’ comment about their station data not appearing in the CRU temp graphs, McIntyre has pointed out how Russian tree core data has been manipulated in the Yamal tree core scandal of Briffa’s for awhile now. But the media ignores.
SPQR (26be8b) — 12/18/2009 @ 4:40 pmIt’s all about Teh Narrative!
AD - RtR/OS! (855ace) — 12/18/2009 @ 5:34 pmI guess, AD, since the Empty Suit(tm) is heralding the non-deal as “historic!”
SPQR (26be8b) — 12/18/2009 @ 6:14 pmChavez: “it still smells like sulfur in the world.”
Me: Have you tried baths and deodorant?
{o.o}
JD (847e52) — 12/18/2009 @ 9:08 pmDRJ:
Unfortunately, Mr. Grayson holds the position of being my representative from central Florida…for at least the next 11 months. I am proud to say I did not vote for this individual, and his appalling comments about Vice-President Cheney (among many other actions) has apparently forced reality on those who did cast ballots for this clown. I’m anticipating the celebration of Mr. Grayson’s permanent departure from the political scene come November 2010.
navyvet (c99bbf) — 12/19/2009 @ 5:41 am