Change we can believe in

Link redirect: To everybody who got the wrong link for the ballot challenge, Here it is.


I don't know what kind of president Obama will turn out to be. I feel confident in predicting that he will not be the raging liberal that the wingnuts promised he would but on climate disruption, he's already showing changes I can believe in.

While he's kept to his strategy of keeping a low profile under the "one president at a time" mantra, he broke out of that mold briefly to send a video address to the international delegates assembling to address the problem. These remarks give me hope that he really will hit the ground running:

He added, "Let me also say a special word to the delegates from around the world who will gather at Poland next month: Your work is vital to the planet. While I won't be president at the time of your meeting, and while the United States has only one president at a time, I've asked members of Congress who are attending the conference as observers to report back to me on what they learn there."

In a clear reference to the Bush administration's stance, Obama declared, "Once I take office, you can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in these negotiations. . . . Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response."

He's promising to take the lead and try "to reduce emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional 80% by 2050." For all the disappointments I'm sure will come, it will be refreshing to be governed by an administration where "Clear Skies" isn't just an Orwellian reference to legalized pollution.

[More posts daily at The Newshoggers and The Detroit News.]