US budget battles make European energy and climate policy look easy

I’m sure Barack Obama doesn’t wish he had been born a European. There is enough speculation as it is over the origins of the 44th president of the United States from ‘serious’ politicians and trashy magazines who love to cast aspersions the origins of this Kenyan/Muslim/terrorist sympathiser.

But Obama must glance towards his allies across the Atlantic from time to time and wish he could slip into David Cameron’s English Oxfords and enjoy the Westminster system. He would then have the unifying force of a three line whip or even a one line whip – even one supportive Democratic voice would help amid the Republican clamour.

He would also have the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 which would defend him against racial abuse, and libel laws that would deter newspapers from publishing malicious falsehoods. Did the founding fathers really intend the first amendment to defend the indefensible by inviting bigots and racists to say anything they like, even if it's factually incorrect, ethically wrong or incites acts of horrible violence?

Obama's clean energy standards slip in budget battle with Republicans

You have to pity Barack Obama. Even before the imminent threat of today's government shutdown, he looked like a man on the wrong end of a turkey shoot. Dick Cheney isn’t holding the smoking gun this time, but other Republicans have the president in their sights from all angles. Attacks on the Environmental Protection Agency, battles over the budget, breaking the unions are all attempts to stymie the Obama administration’s progress in any policy area.

So away from Capitol Hill, it must have come as a refreshing change to announce his Blueprint for Secure Energy Future to an appreciative audience with intelligent and open minds at Georgetown University in Washington DC.

As the leader of the free world, the president is the most shackled person in American politics. So he must have enjoyed the the freedom finally of saying the words climate, pollution and quickly in the same paragraph:

“We’ve got to discover and produce cleaner, renewable sources of energy that also produce less carbon pollution, which is threatening our climate. And we’ve got to do it quickly.”