We've Been Down This Road Before

David Roberts over at GristMill takes a look at the rumors about Dear Leader's U-Turn this week on global warming (from The Independent; posted below) and sees a similar shot across the bow of the SS Gore by Rove back in 2000 and stealing a signature issue of the Democratic candidate:

It's exactly what Turdblossom did in the 2000 election: Bush's promise to regulate CO2 was nothing but a successful bid to take the issue off the table, to dilute media and voter attention (same with "compassionate conservatism"). It immunized Bush.

Now Rove is trying to immunize the party, by changing its stance on global warming from "No!" to "blah blah blah." Voters understand No, and on an issue like this they'll come to see it as obstructionist. But they don't really follow the blah blah blah. They'll get the impression that both parties are addressing the issue; then it's six of one half dozen the other.

Will it work? Let's just say the last six years have encouraged me never to underestimate the charlatans or overestimate the the voting public.

He goes on to list some of the things that might come along with the announcement, from the definite (subsidies out the ying-yang, mainly for ethanol, nuclear, and clean coal/sequestration) to the possible (concession that global warming is taking place coupled with the willfully ignorant claim that we don't know whether it's human-caused or natural) to the potential big deal (CO2 cap-and-trade program), as well as propose a fun drinking game to help you through the tortured language of President Furious McChimpy.