Concord, NH -- The ABC News debate here on Saturday featured the most extensive dialogue on energy and global warming to date in these elections. And on caucus night in Iowa, the Democratic candidates talked about these subjects in an unprecedented way. Six candidates -- all the leading Democrats plus Mike Huckabee and John McCain on the Republican side -- can now claim a piece of our smart energy future. Mitt Romney, Rudolf Giuliani and Fred Thompson, by contrast, have positioned themselves as running for president of the past on this issue. But none of the candidates thus far have figured out that the promise of a new energy future is a potent answer to the question facing them all; namely, how they intend to satisfy an American public which is fed up with partisanship and political gridlock, while also demanding change and a break with the past. In New Hampshire, voters are disappointed that none of the candidates have claimed ownership of the issue. As the New York Times reports today, energy prices are a top concern of the electorate here -- a concern that has been woefully under-addressed.
Change, of course, is never easy, and almost always controversial, so political change and political discord go hand-in-hand. You can see the candidates dancing around this dilemma day after day, but energy policy is one of the few arenas where there is a bipartisan, trans-generational consensus on something that will be a huge change -- kicking the carbon habit.
There's an opportunity there for any candidate who wants to seize it. Here's how I'd put it to each of the candidates, if I had the chance to meet them in an elevator and pitch them individually on how to use the issue to their advantage.
Senator Clinton, you can't avoid the fact that your husband was president -- but he laid out an agenda on energy that the Republicans in Congress blocked, change that George Bush blocked, but which the American people now want, and that you can bring to fruition.
Senator Obama, you are being criticized for talking about hope, change and overcoming partisanship, but not being concrete enough -- here is an issue where you can show that you have the concrete vision and depth to deliver on your promises, an issue that showcases your premise that the American people are more united than their leaders.
Senator Edwards, you were the first candidate to lay out a comprehensive new energy vision. You can talk about how the other candidates have been following your leadership. Ask the public why we don't have the energy and global warming policy that the majority of Americans want, then give them the answer: precisely because of the special interest lobbying influence you decry.
Senator McCain, you are being attacked as a creature of Washington -- well, your leadership on fuel-efficiency standards and global warming required taking on your party establishment and its financial backers in the carbon complex -- stand up proudly for your courage.
And Governor Huckabee, here is an issue where your faith and its mandate to care for creation and your commitment to the common person can be brought together with the insights of the most advanced science -- a message even secular Americans are hungry for.