Politico’s environment reporter Darrin Samuelsohn has been all over a story that the rest of the media has completely missed, namely, that Obama might be willing to sell out the EPA and agree to have some Republican restrictions included in their budget language. Greens are furious that Obama’s energy speech on Wednesday made no mention of defending the EPA from GOP attacks.
But one quotation in Samuelsohn’s Friday story really jumps out, from Frank O’Donnell of Clean Air Watch, who runs a one-man operation that somehow gets lots of press ink from being in every reporter’s rolodex. O’Donnell told Samuelsohn: ”It’s clear the president is running for reelection and that at this point, environmental protection is not on his top list of priorities.”
Say what, Frank? I thought environmental protection was supposed to be popular. Or maybe he’s started looking at the polls, like Gallup’s annual survey that shows steady slippage in public sympathy for environmental issues for several years now (predating the recession), or the Pew survey that shows Americans rank global warming way way down the list of major concerns, just barely above obesity.
And if you wanted any more evidence that the greens are on the ropes with the American public, Samuelsohn has another gem quotation: “I think [the environmental movement] needs to rethink and reorganize the message and re-energize a lot more Americans to see the connection of the dots. And I think that’s what’s going to take place.” And just who is predicting this new wave of dot-connecting? Sen. John Kerry.