Oy. Lord only knows what the heck Jake Tapper thought he was up to when he posted this blog entry at ABC's "Political Punch" today. Carrying the headline, "Bill: 'We Just Have to Slow Down Our Economy' to Fight Global Warming," Tapper bends over in stunned incredulity at Bill Clinton's remarks in Denver, Colorado. Here's his insistent lede:
In a long, and interesting speech, he characterized what the U.S. and other industrialized nations need to do to combat global warming this way: "We just have to slow down our economy and cut back our greenhouse gas emissions 'cause we have to save the planet for our grandchildren."
Then, screwing on his best "WTF?" face, Tapper proceeds to cast all sorts of mocking aspersions. "At a time that the nation is worried about a recession is that really the characterization his wife would want him making? 'Slow down our economy'?" He then wonders if this was a "moment of candor," or "something of a contradiction," or, "perhaps he misspoke?"
As it turns out, the answer is none of the above. And, gosh, the only thing stopping Tapper from telling his readers this is his seeming ignorance of Bill Clinton's statement, in its entirety, which Tapper includes in this blog post.
"Everybody knows that global warming is real," Mr. Clinton said, giving a shout-out to Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize, "but we cannot solve it alone."
"And maybe America, and Europe, and Japan, and Canada -- the rich counties -- would say, 'OK, we just have to slow down our economy and cut back our greenhouse gas emissions 'cause we have to save the planet for our grandchildren.' We could do that.
"But if we did that, you know as well as I do, China and India and Indonesia and Vietnam and Mexico and Brazil and the Ukraine, and all the other countries will never agree to stay poor to save the planet for our grandchildren. The only way we can do this is if we get back in the world's fight against global warming and prove it is good economics that we will create more jobs to build a sustainable economy that saves the planet for our children and grandchildren. It is the only way it will work."
See that? Bill Clinton's "slow down the economy" remarks came in the context of a hypothetical. This is hardly an endorsement of an economic slowdown - Clinton is clearly arguing against it! He's no more in favor of an economic slowdown than, say, Obama is a fan of Ronald Reagan. You cannot possibly come to any other conclusion, unless of course, some idiot cherrypicks a single statement out of three paragraphs and then jumps up and down, waving his arms like a clown, in an attempt to specifically lead the reader away from the truth.
After the complete transcript of Clinton's remarks, Tapper adds an update: "Not so difficult to predict -- the RNC just issued a statement in response to the former President's comment." OH, WELL! The only thing easier than predicting this nonsense is writing it in the first place.