Yes, DR, I agree that McCain is down around the ankles.

As for the Democrats, though, let us not muddy the way to feel through the muddiness.

Or, perhaps better said, there are two different levels of muddiness, and one level matters much more than the other.

The level that does not matter so much is that of policy statements.  All of these are provisional, and can be tweaked, adjusted and negotiated.  So, muddiness on this level is quite tolerable.

The level that matters is the level of the candidates' respective commitment to the issue.  How committed are they, really?  If they are really committed, is it because they find such commitment politically expedient, or is it because they have sincerely embraced the issue as huge, as the reason they are now seeking to serve the public, in sort of an Al-Gore-ish way?

By no means are all the Democrats to be believed to be interchangeable on that level.

Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.

It seems to me that Edwards would be the better choice for the environment. No mention of him anywhere. I guess this site believes the corporate team player is the best choice for the environment?

If, during the election period, a presidential candidate articulates a clear plan to address climate change, you can only be sure that it means that he/she cares enough about the election to do their homework.

I am interested in a candidate who first consults their heart and then their experts, rather than one who first consults the polls and then their experts. (It would be helpful to have the experts in their somewhere.)

The truth is that an election is dominated by rhetoric.  Would Al Gore's platform issue endorsements merely shape the candidates' future rhetoric?

The real question is who do you believe will aggressively address the Environmental agenda immediately. Having an aggressive plan is great, but who would actually work immediately to carry it out?

So far, I believe that it would be:
McCain [already has]
Kucinich [already walks the walk]
Clinton [on E&PW Committee]
Edwards
Obama [He will be too busy working on his re-election campaign.]
all the rest of the republican presidents.

That being said, has anyone other than McCain taken any leadership on environmental issues? (Hillary Clinton is on the Environment & Public Works Committee.) Pretty sad, if the boldest environmental leader of the pack (to date) has been a republican.

So, if one looks to past leadership performance as a decision-making tool, McCain looks good. (Of course, he looks horrible on so many other issues, IMO.)

Now, which president would provide continuity on Environmental issues is another list.

www.NoPunProductions.com ~ AmericaTheGreen.org

T Ray,
FYI, I have been throughout a strong supporter of John Edwards; I voted for him in the NY primary in 2004, and I plan to vote for him again next month; I proudly and loyally follow his banner, as he leads us on into his political cul-de-sac ...

Greta,
believe it or not, the one and only time in my life that I registered Republican was in 2000, so that I could vote in the NY primary for John McCain: partly because of his own virtues, partly because the way the Republican establishment got behind W. and made him their inevitable candidate was disgusting.

But I have subsequently been wrestling with the ethics of that temporary switch, seeing that I would not have voted for McCain in the general election, had he in fact won his party's nomination.

Anyway, his conduct over the past few years has turned me against him.

But why do you rank him so high?  The environmental agenda does not come across at all as a central part of his political mission.  DR will of course explain the problem with McCain far better than I can.

As for John Edwards, concerns about climate change and other environmental dangers fit naturally with what his candidacy is about, so I would definitely throw him into the mix squabbling for the gold.

I do not have any grave objection to Hillary being up there, though you may recall that a few of us join Tom Philpott in feeling dismayed about her selection of a CAFO queen to represent her in the farm states.

As for Obama, I am afraid he has done little to assure us that your cynicism is clearly off the mark.

Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.