Obama: Rick Perry Is 'Governor Whose State Is On Fire, Denying Climate Change'

By Erica Werner, Associated Press

WOODSIDE, Calif. -- President Barack Obama swiped at Texas Gov. Rick Perry, criticizing him as "a governor whose state is on fire, denying climate change."

Obama also poked at the audience reactions at recent GOP presidential debates, singling out those who cheered at the prospect of someone dying because he didn't have health insurance – and those who booed a gay service member.

The president said "that's not reflective of who we are."

He made the comments Sunday at a fundraiser at the Silicon Valley home of John Thompson, chairman of Symantec Corp.

---
More from HuffPost (quotes courtesy of White House pool report):

Obama hit back at the conservative media, urging supporters to "push back" on the "inadequate information" found on Fox News and the Wall Street Journal's editorial page.

Speaking to an audience full of supporters, he called the 2012 election "a contest of values."

"This is a choice about the fundamental direction of our country," he said. "2008 was an important direction. 2012 is a more important election."

"We're going to have a stark choice in this election," he said. "This is a choice about who we are and what we stand for and whoever wins this next election is going to set the template for this country for a long time to come."

Watch Obama discuss his jobs bill in his weekly address:

Comments

[Iam12Vote]

09:29 PM on 09/28/2011

We can't have a windbagger go against a Teabagger for the win on this issue.
Where do you stand on the tar sand pipeline deal Mr. President?

[change 2010]

06:17 PM on 09/28/2011

By Graham Tibbetts 12:46PM BST 30 May 2008
More than 31,000 scientists have signed a petition denying that man is responsible for global warming.
The academics, including 9,000 with PhDs, claim that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane are actually beneficial for the environment.
The petition was created in 1998 by an American physicist, the late Frederick Seitz, in response to the Kyoto Protocol a year earlier.
It urged the US government to reject the treaty and said: "The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind."
It added: "There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of ... greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the forseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments."
The petition was reissued last year by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, an independent research group, partly in response to Al Gore’s film on climate change, An Inconvenient Truth.

[pyradius]

09:31 PM on 09/28/2011

You might want to take a gander at the facts surrounding that 'petition' before swearing by it:

http://www.skepticalscience.com/scrutinising-31000-scientists-in-the-OISM-Petition-Project.html

[gallon]

12:22 AM on 09/29/2011

Hah! Here is that tired old Oregon list of names again. Science by petition. Very convincing.
I understand that Mickey Mouse signed up. The petition has been resoundingly debunked.

http://debunking.pbworks.com/w/page/17102969/Oregon%20Petition
http://www.desmogblog.com/oregon-petition
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Oregon_Institute_of_Science_and_Medicine
http://makewealthhistory.org/2009/06/15/31478-scientists-agree-climate-change-is-a-hoax/
http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2004/05/oregonpetition.php
http://mediamatters.org/research/200706060009
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/08/395630/-Some-global-warming-denier-is-canvassing-college-faculty


There are many more.

[niko73]

05:47 PM on 09/28/2011

Obama, you should have been calling BS on right-wing lies the last 3 years. Instead you caved, threw in the towel, compromised, and absorbed their abuse without fighting back. Too little too late, my friend.

[englishman545]

11:40 AM on 09/28/2011

President Obama, please shut up and retire, you're not supposed to be campaigning right now anyway, you're supposed to be running the country!

Wait a minute, you were suppposed to be running the country since you were elected!!

When are you going to start??

Better still, go on another vacation!

[gallon]

11:58 AM on 09/28/2011

trolling?

[englishman545]

12:00 PM on 09/28/2011

Obama has mistaken the citizens for chum, but we are really chumps.

[JoanieXYZ]

12:52 PM on 09/28/2011

Is that what you call anyone who speaks the truth???

[ILoveFiction]

03:13 PM on 09/28/2011

We are having trouble making up our mind today.

[englishman545]

03:26 PM on 09/28/2011

Yes presidential decisions, must have advisors and teleprompters.

[ILoveFiction]

04:10 AM on 09/28/2011

He said "climate change"?

Can he actually DO that?

How bold.

[FreedomMan]

10:11 PM on 09/27/2011

I saw Obama, he rolled up his sleeves, wagged his finger, and gave somebody or other a super
hyped up fund raising speech. . .

[Heschel]

06:12 PM on 09/27/2011

I don't know what to say about wall street at this point. Perhaps, God help us. Singapore is kicking our ***. It would be very foolish of voting America to replace our present President at this point in the grand restructuring which is taking place globally. Hear me what I say: A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Our country is heading upward and President Obama has fought quite well for us to be able to maintain and return to the height from which we have fallen.Yes. I do believe i am going to make a contribution to his second term in office as President of the United States of America.

[JoanieXYZ]

12:53 PM on 09/28/2011

You have to be kidding!

[Sallie Fajardo]

04:59 PM on 09/27/2011

The story of Jonah and the story of Noah's ark shows us God changes our climate because of our disobedience.

[Drash]

05:06 PM on 09/27/2011

Iron Age fairy tales are not scientific textbooks.

[woodys ghost]

09:22 PM on 09/27/2011

The story of Sallie Fajardo shows us how misplaced faith can completely misguide a perfectly good soul.

[mikdfour]

04:25 PM on 09/27/2011

Obama can tell the GOP who to respond to but can't even distance himself from Ho_ffa's comments when they shared the same stage??

[SeriousBlack]

12:23 AM on 09/28/2011

Ooooohhhhh, "Ho_ffa's comments", ooooohhhh. Musta heard that pounded on a gazillion times on Fox, right?

Automatically wins you the argument, hunh?

Not.

Next.

[Sallie Fajardo]

04:08 PM on 09/27/2011

People don't cause climate change.

[woodys ghost]

09:23 PM on 09/27/2011

Sallie Fajardo doesn't think much for herself.

[logicdog]

10:05 PM on 09/27/2011

Or really much at all, for that matter.

[SeriousBlack]

12:25 AM on 09/28/2011

She should ask Fox for a salary - I believe it's called the "conservative echo chamber stipend".

[DavidBlackburn]

03:02 AM on 09/28/2011

No they don't, but their actions advance it.

[scorpian777]

12:01 PM on 09/27/2011

Climate change has been going on for eons. Does this mean Obama wants more of our money for what is happening naturally???

[Jack Canuckski]

12:10 PM on 09/27/2011

One has to be completely ignorant to think that the CO2 is accumulating in the atmosphere due to natural causes.

Scientists have already demonstrated the link between the burninbg of fossil fuels and the rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

It is a pity that the know-nothings have aquired so much credibility in the US media, but not surprising. These days, ignorance is cultivated as a virtue amongst right wingers and tea partiers in the US. That's why a candidate like John Huntsman, who distinguishes himself as someone who believes in the scientific method cannot be considered as a viable or credible candidate for the Republicans.

[change 2010]

06:10 PM on 09/28/2011

you understand that what you exhale is CO2?

that plants can not live without CO2 and you will not get oxygen unless the plants get CO2 to produce O2...

are you with me..?

John Huntsman was never a viable candidate...

[Theo White]

01:36 PM on 09/27/2011

It happens naturally but over thousands of years not 150. The vast majority of the worlds climatologists agree on it and is not an Obama thing. Texas is burning because they are to cheap and unprepared to handle the situation. Their State of Department of Forestry has a mere 200 employees. You sound like one of those anti-science kooks in denial.

[ShelleyVan]

05:27 PM on 09/27/2011

Excuse me, "Texas is burning because they are to cheap and unprepared to handle the situation. Their State of Department of Forestry has a mere 200 employees."???? You don't know what you're talking about. If you did you wouldn't be blaming the low number of Forestry employees for these fires. The fires did not begin in state FORESTS; they began in cities and towns all across TX due to our severe drought and abnormally high temperatures this summer. How can anyone be prepared for a fire that destroys 1400 homes in one city, or a drought that kills countless animals state-wide and destroys farmers' and ranchers' livlihoods? It is a catastrauphic drought that is predicted to continue well into 2012. And the forestry dept. has nothing to do with it, but global warming just might.

[Dan De Lion]

10:28 AM on 09/27/2011

Obama; A typical Global Warmer: not very smart, no knowledge of science, technology, business, or economics. When will the GW cultists stop imaging causes for ordinary weather events? As has been pointed out for thousands of years - “WHEN PEOPLE STOP BELIEVING IN RELIGION, THEY DON'T BELIEVE IN NOTHING, THEY BELIEVE IN ANYTHING.”

Normally your Greenie religion (call it GAIA) would just be an amusing aside. But, given that Gaia simpletons are trying to wreck the economy, it is necessary to point out the foolishness of predicting global temps based upon one variable (there are millions of variables.) That anyone who says “the science is in,” knows little about science. And, that verifiable predictions are the basic scientific test (tests that GW predictions repeatedly fail.)
-

[gallon]

11:15 AM on 09/27/2011

Nothing to read here but typical partisan hatred of the President.


Hey dandelion weed. The science is settled. Plenty of subtleties to be researched of course. But the basic idea is sound. Mankind is causing global warming. We can all perceive it now, well except for the deniers. They were protesting rain back when the ark was being built. Some of them must have made it aboard as stowaways.

[Dan De Lion]

12:08 PM on 09/27/2011

It's true that BO is the most incompetent president in living memory.

But, I was only pointing out the simple mindedness of GW believers. Anytime “gallon” would like to debate science, technology, business, or economics – you know where to find me! Otherwise keep your cultist GW believes to yourself, rather than ruining the economy with them!
-

[change 2010]

06:15 PM on 09/28/2011

@gallon,

the science is not settled... from 2008... so peddle your lies elsewhere

More than 31,000 scientists have signed a petition denying that man is responsible for global warming.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/2053842/Scientists-sign-petition-denying-man-made-global-warming.html

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=64734

[scorpian777]

12:03 PM on 09/27/2011

"WOW" Great comment!!!

[JeffWayne]

09:57 AM on 09/27/2011

It appears the more the Republicans talk, the more Barok gets the opportunity to make them look stupid, well, itz cuz......... they do look stupid.

Itz about time Obama started calling em' out.

[scorpian777]

12:04 PM on 09/27/2011

Really, Really!! It appears to me Obama needs the help!!

[logicdog]

10:16 PM on 09/27/2011

You're going to get a rude shock in 2012, scorps. . .

[balthus]

09:17 AM on 09/27/2011

It's about time. But not too late.

I'm in!

[scorpian777]

12:05 PM on 09/27/2011

Well hell lets hope ya don't slip in whatever your in

[Peter Combs]

09:13 AM on 09/27/2011

He gives a nice speech......one after another.....day after day....more speeches....points his fingers.....talks more.....

Oddly, has anyone noticed Pelosi and Reid are no where to be seen in supporting him? They aren't grabbing the mic's and backing him up, not offering parallel views, no Dems are standing along side him pushing his points? Other than Tim Geithner....its curious...

[scorpian777]

12:06 PM on 09/27/2011

You know you're correct good thinking!!

[logicdog]

10:20 PM on 09/27/2011

Well, the Bush (II) usually gave his speeches on his lonesome, too, probably because nobody wanted to be associated with what passed for his "oration" skills. I don't see Pelosi or Reid taking issue with his arguments, either.

By the way, Bush's speeches were a lot more fun than Obama's. It was a hoot to watch him try to string a coherent sentence together. . .