Should Obama Boycott Copenhagen? You Betcha, Says Palin
Sarah Palin, eager to stretch her 15 minutes (fame equals hefty speaking engagements), has entered the fray over “climate-gate” the ongoing controversy over the hacked emails from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia.
This time, she’s not writing on her Facebook page but has instead penned (or one of her communications/ghost writers) an op-ed in today’s Washington Post, urging President Obama to boycott the United Nations Climate Change Conference. She argues that the hacked emails call into question “the proposals being pushed in Copenhagen.”
She writes:
The last thing America needs is misguided legislation that will raise taxes and cost jobs — particularly when the push for such legislation rests on agenda-driven science.
And urges:
Without trustworthy science and with so much at stake, Americans should be wary about what comes out of this politicized conference. The president should boycott Copenhagen.
The muse of the “drill, baby, drill” crowd warns that Obama will use Copenhagen has a launchpad t pass climate change legislation with a cap-and-trade provision. Obviously, Palin is against cap-and-trade or as she calls it “cap-and-tax”.
In the Atlantic’s Politics blog Marc Ambinder does a masterful job debunking Palin’s assertions.
On the widely circulated claim that the CRU deleted data that did not support the science of man-made climate change, Ambinder writes:
There are investigations underway to determine whether data was deleted; there is no evidence that data was manipulated, aside from words deliberately taken out of context, like ‘trick’ and ‘contain.’
As expected Climate Progress is livid but less at Palin and more at the Washington Post for “going tabloid” and giving the ex governor (or as we’ve said before a PR adviser) carte blanche to write a “grotesquely irresponsible and falsehood-filled piece on climate science and the hacked emails.”
The hacked emails fished out of the CRU server have been an absolute godsend for global warming skeptics, many are making the trip to Copenhagen. Palin was actually rumored to be joining Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) so called “truth squad”, which is going to the Danish capital, acting as a shadow opposition to the climate change consensus. Other member of the Inhofe truth squad include Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).
The Obama administration has maintained that the hacked e-mails only represent a fraction of climate change data.
The Palin op-ed is just latest roll out of a well greased PR campaign designed to ensure that she stays in the spotlight as long as possible. Climate change is above-the-fold news these day. Palin and her advisors were obviously going to jump on that train of media exposure.
Photo Credit: Getty via Rolling Stone
