I’m an old New Yorker man from way back. I’ve noted any number of terrific New Yorker stories here, from George Packer and Ryan Lizza on the failures of the Senate on climate and energy legislation, to the authoritative Betsy Kolbert on nearly anything and everything relative to sustainability and the environment.
Hendrik Hertzberg is a most perceptive observer and analyst of politics and society. (I did take him to task on a piece he wrote about nuclear power that I thought was uncharacteristically poorly informed.)
He has a concise and insightful “comment” in the magazine this week, Cooling on Warming that looks at how President Obama has taken a much lower profile lately on climate and energy. Hertzberg does lay blame for the death of legislation in Congress where it’s due: “The contributing causes included the economic crisis, which made it easy to stoke fear; the power, money, and regional clout of sectors that benefit from the greenhouse-gas-producing status quo, especially the coal and oil industries; the Republican congressional leadership’s determination to forgo compromise in favor of a disciplined drive to block anything that might resemble a victory for Obama; the rise of the Tea Party right and the baleful influence of talk radio and Fox News; and, as always, the filibuster.” But he also notes the President’s mistakes.
I was not happy when the White House chose health care reform as its first major legislative priority. I had hoped that they would come hard charging on climate and energy first. They’ve done great things along the way however. Although the heroic legislative efforts of very good people like Henry Waxman, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Barbara Boxer and others came to naught, that Obama did not effect the big-picture climate package that many had hoped for certainly does not indicate a “failed presidency” as some might have it.
Hertzberg indicates that the game isn’t up but that there’s a rear-guard action being staged by the White House. I think there’s a lot more than that going on, and I’ve said so here many times. The New Yorker piece is nevertheless an exceedingly worthwhile and concise summary of where we stand.