Marathon Pundit: Obama blowing smoke on coal

How do people fall for this crap? Oh yeah, I forgot, Barack Obama is the leader of the Cult of Change. Obama was in Missoula, Montana, the most liberal city in the Big Sky State, where he talked up coal.

From AP:

Democrat Barack Obama said Saturday he supports environmentally-sound ways to use coal and promised to appoint a high-level adviser on Indian issues if elected president.

Obama acknowledged his support of clean-energy technology might worry voters in a region that produces lots of coal.

"I know Montana's a coal state. My home state, Illinois, is a coal state, but we've got to make sure that we are investing in technologies that capture carbon because we can't sustain the planet the way that we're doing it right now," Obama said, speaking to 8,000 people at a college arena. "Look at this incredible landscape around you. We've got to pass that on."

In an October 2004 debate with Alan Keyes, candidate Obama spoke up for clean coal, saying:

That is actually something that not only Illinois should want, but the entire nation should want, because one of our highest priorities has to be energy and dependence in the future.

Two months after being sworn in as a senator, Obama could have given the coal industry, especially in Illinois, a big shot in the arm by voting for the Clear Skies Act. As is his wont, Obama voted the party line, which was "No" on this issue, and the bill died in committee--the final vote was 9-9. But not after he presented himself as a possible "swing vote."

Audacious! Here's what the Washington Post wrote last year:

After co-sponsoring legislation earlier this year for billions of dollars in subsidies for liquefied coal, Obama more recently began qualifying his support in ways that have left both environmentalists and coal industry officials unsure where he stands. His shift has helped shape this month's Senate debate over how to reduce both dependence on foreign oil and carbon dioxide emissions; on Tuesday, he voted against one proposal to boost liquefied coal and for a more narrowly worded one. Both failed.

More broadly, Obama's contortions on coal point to the limits of the role he likes to assume, that of a unifier who can appeal across traditional lines and employ a "new kind of politics" to solve problems. In reaching out to the coal industry, some observers say, he may have been trying to show that he is a different sort of Democrat, but the gesture had the look of old-style politicking and put him in a corner, where he wound up alienating some on both sides of the issue.

Obama is no friend of coal, and he is not whatever that is, "a new kind of politician."

As for Indian issues, McCain, who represents a state with one of the highest populations of Native Americans, the Arizonan is considered a friend of the first Americans. Read here in his own words.

For his part, John McCain is concerned about the negatives of coal, especially greenhouse gases, but the senator has a clear energy policy--and it includes coal. And the man at the helm of the "Straight Talk Express" doesn't talk out of both sides of his mouth.

But Obama does.

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