Gore: Polluters like big tobacco

By GottaLaff

Hal Sparks made an interesting point on the Radio Machine a few days ago: If we frame the global warming issue as a polluting issue, there could be a broader understanding and eventually, a willingness to accept the dire consequences of the abuses to Mother Earth.

In other words, the naysayers who deny the existence of man-made climate change might be more amenable to accepting responsibility for polluting our environment, and be more inclined to understand that concept.

Former Vice President Al Gore, citing tobacco industry campaigns of years past, told CBS that disinformation from industrial polluters has made achieving political agreement on climate change more difficult.

“Some of the largest carbon polluters have been vigorous and try to convince people — as the tobacco industry did years ago on the link between smoking cigarettes and lung disease — that there really isn’t a link between global warming pollution and global warming,” Gore said in an interview broadcast Thursday on CBS’s “The Early Show.”

People pollute. Industries pollute. And now their words pollute.

There is no denying that pollution dirties up our air, our water, and as a result, our bodies. It is universally accepted that this is a bad thing, despite how one feels (or believes) about the somehow hard-to-grasp concept of global warming.

By reframing the arguments, and by comparing polluters to the tobacco industry, Hal Sparks and Al Gore may be on to a thing or two.

Reset impressions, define John Sidney McCain

By GottaLaff

Marc Ambinder, re: The new poll numbers, in part:

But think of this development as simply a beachhead growing a few inches taller against a very powerful wave. Eight years of Republicans and President Bush. A Democratic advantage on the economy -- an economy which is not improving. A Democratic GOTV advantage. A Democratic enthusiasm advantage. A Democratic down-ballot advantage. And McCain was always, inevitably going to grow stronger as partisanship set in. A segment of Obama's independent and Democratic vote was an anti-Clinton vote; Obama looked good in comparison to Clinton. Without Clinton, Obama was just a personality. The campaign has struggled to find a way to reset those impressions, and some folks have probably drifted.

McCain has given them something to think about this summer: Obama. And Obama hasn't returned the favor. He hasn't defined McCain in a visceral way, yet. He hasn't demonstrated that he can connect with working class white voters, although voters do find him empathetic enough. He can do both of these at the convention, and there are indications that he's doing the former in states with advertising.

Reset those impressions. Define McCain. See previous post.