Who Will Be Our First Green President?

As the presidential candidates begin to turn up the heat on their campaigns post Labor Day, the League of Conservation Voters has released its 2008 Democratic Presidential Profiles, the environmental community's premier questionnaire for the '08 candidates.

Most Americans agree that global warming is one of the greatest challenges we face. So one of the key issue questions of the '08 cycle is: Who will be our first green president? LCV's Presidential Profiles offer an in-depth view into the candidate's environmental views, as well as the information voters need to decide who will be America's first green president.

This past spring, LCV sent a questionnaire addressing the most important current environmental topics to all of the presidential candidates. The Profiles contain their answers, in their own words. Both the questionnaire and the answers can be found here.

Aside from the in-depth policy answers, two things stand out about the profiles: the priority the candidates place on addressing the twin challenges of global warming and energy in their administration. Voters are determined, to a greater extent than ever before, to make global warming and energy top tier issues in 2008. As Thomas Friedman has said, "Green is the new red, white and blue." We hope the candidates continue to talk about addressing these twin challenges with voters on the campaign trail.

The candidate's answers to this important questionnaire play a role in LCV's primary and general election endorsement process. LCV plans to release additional presidential profiles soon - as well as updates to the existing profiles. Enjoy and stay tuned.

Comments

[ChicaOfLight78]

I agree that global warming is the most serious challenge America and the rest of humanity faces. Global warming is a threat we really can't afford to ignore. As the Earth's atmosphere traps more heat, the environment will necessarily be forced to transform and that means our way of life will be forced to transform with it. Anyone that thinks global warming wont affect them is gravely mistaken. All it takes is a few degrees in global temperature difference and the world's surface is radically transformed.

[Wilburrr]

Jimmy Carter was our first green president. Too bad Ronny Ray-Gun dismantled his alternative energy program and removed the photovoltaics from the roof of the White House...

[cube3u]

Best Lifetime Score from the site was Obama. Hillary and Richardson were also fine. Edwards bombed.

Go Obama!

[liveandlearn]

what do you mean "ADDITIONAL presidential profiles"? how about the first one?

[OldKnute]

Well, the answer to this question is rather easy.

The first candidate that offers facilitation, just and fair laws and rules to the thousands of businessmen that are BILLIONS on Green and environmentally sound practices and new technologies.

I was thinking the other day,,,

We should all bend over and kiss George Bush’s arse for showing the whole world how wrong BIG OIL, business as usual, and the Militant Neo-Cons have been.

Live Earth, pointed to 2 billion people that take these things seriously, distrust the status quo, and are NONE to supportive of wars to fill our gas tanks.

Wall Street now has identified a HUGE market base, of people that are more than willing to pay 3 times the price, for products and Green technologies and environmentally friendly solutions.

We may not follow the money in considering the causes of wars, but they do!

Sooooo!

We will have a Green President when they,,,,, SAY SO!

Heck, even BP and Exxon are now running GREEN ADDS!

Shouldn’t be long now!

All the best

Knute

[loslobo]

Ya gotta love those adds "It's a start". All the millions they spend buying policy for the past 40 years and getting "scientists" to fool the public about a global warming debate. I find more sincerity from RJ Renolds tring to get people to quit smoking.

[OldKnute]

loslobos.

Hahahaha! Yes!

I agree, the ads are hilarious, actors trying to stutter frequently and pretend they are not reading from a script. It is not only BP and Exxon doing this in the States, Chevron in on the GREEN fakery ads too.

Where I find hope is in Wall Street. They are clamoring to throw money as start-ups, IPOS and anything that has a prospect of changing things.

I guess the money managers breathe too, and would like something of a planet left for their children.

Oh, do keep in mind the Evangelical Mega-Corporate Churches, they are locking in on GREEN too. Guess the modern day crusades are not going well.

Seems some of their parishioners are about fed up with tornados, hurricanes, tsunamis, ice storms, giant fires, wars, famine, drought and 15 state floods.

“Be yee GOOD STEWARDS.”

Or words to that effect.

Nice to see, but I think it is Wall Street that will turn our corner for us and back the first candidate that presses a Business Plan for a Green Economy and favorable tax incentives.

All the best

Knute

[indypete]

They are running "Green ads" cos the Iraq war has pushed oil prices up enough that alternative energy is now a viable option, insofar as it's advantageous for the oil companies to develop it now. As long as oil was cheap it wasn't worth their while to compete with themselves; now, as the cash cow starts to get old and sicken, they get ready to get a new cow. Who do you think is gonna be building the windmills, processing the corn, building the tidal generators? With gas at $3+ a gallon, they can get their cake (obscene profits) and eat it (R&D) too. By the way, Knute... "arse?"... are you a fellow Brit?

[disintaGreatNation]

There's more to being green than just hugging trees. [clicky] http://www.gp.org/press/pr_09_20_02.html

[Wilburrr]

"It's not easy, being green"
Kermit the Frog

[Dantheman99]

Amen to that.

Imagine, two Roosevelt presidents which will go down in history as two of the best.

Two Bush presidents which will go down in history as two of the worst. In "Dubya's" case, it's rock bottom bad. Only Dubya could make his father look great by comparison.

[cotterpin]

Of the leading candidates Edwards won hands down.
Both Obama and Hillary did pretty poorly mostly due to their loyalty to the coal industry and by default their disregard to Global Warming.

[Rhydderch69]

Did you actually read the LCV report?
Their quantification of the candidates' environmental voting record tells a very different story, with Obama scoring a 96, Hillary a 90, and Kucinich a 92, and Edwards a 59.

[cotterpin]

Oops! I confused it with an earlier report that was specific to global warming. Both Hill and Obama supported funding for coal gasification research, which was a major demerit.

[dadw5boys]

We need a Intellgent President more than we need a green one. Let Congress and the Senate take care of Green.
We need a President that can restore the USA to a respected position among the other nations of the world and back to the leadership position on human rights and peaceful interaction.
Green is not what a President need to worry about but the US leadership role in forgien affairs and the safety of the American People here and abroad.
That is enough one his plate!

[Dantheman99]

You make a compelling point. Let's just hope the next President isn't anti-green or refuses to believe global warming "in his heart" and empty head.

[Dantheman99]

How convenient of you to forget there will actually be a Green Party Presidential candidate on the ballot.

No matter who the Democrats nominate, our candidate will be "greener".

While we are not favored to win, of course, the Democratic Party is far from the only game in town and far from being the most green choice the voters will have next year.

If you really want a green president, than vote for the real thing. Vote Green.

[indypete]

I would love to see your guy win. I'd also love to have a 3-way with Pam Anderson and Kelly Ripa but it ain't gonna happen. Coalition is what the Green party needs. General Montgomery was fond of the old joke "Never go into battle unless you have a four to one advantage in toilet paper". Don't pick a fight you can't win and don't pick a fight that helps everybody's enemy. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Vote Green and you vote us into more shit. Green-Dem coalition could be a step in the right direction.

[INQUIRER]

It's hard to see what the Greens get out of a Green-Dem coalition. SOP is, they get to vote for the Dem. Of course, they also get to not have another moral-pygmy, moron, Nazi-wannabe in the White House. Right now, that seems like a lot.

We really need to reorganize our government along Parliamentary lines. It's the only way to have a government that can be replaced over any given issue and at any given time. Isn't it obvious to all of us by now that once the president has already caused repeated disasters he should be replaced immediately? A parliament also has the virtue of allowing representation of more than two parties. In such a system, coalitions would not only make sense, they would pay off for everyone.

I wish that some perspicacious person would suggest step one for such a transformation. I'm thinking we need a Constitutional Congress whose delegates are forbidden on pain of standing trial for treason to touch the bill of rights.

[Spookcatcher]

The American Agenda of the next election needs to focus on the Health of our Nation. National Health Care. Restoration of our Civil Liberties. A working Education system teaching skills for a decent living wage. Public accountability for all government employees, contractors, and elected officials and politicians. After the "Greening"of our most precious resouce, OUR PEOPLE, is on track, we can, without being under duress or special interest propaganda and Fear Tactics, properly address any reality of Climate Change. Right now with the huge plight of our Nation being held hostage and attacked in all our Public Institutions we need "climate change" and a "reversal" of the direction of our leaders.

[rektruax]

As I've said before... There is now, has always been, and probably always will be great dire reasons to ignore third and independent party candidates and stick with Republocrats... I know, I know; but it's really true this time!

Vote your conscience '08!

[oldpotsmuggler]

Odd as it may seem, and also somewhat misleading, almost all of our best environmental legislation to date in this country was signed into law by Richard Nixon. Laws that were either passed directly in his years in office, or under which significant progress was made during the same time period, include Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, Wilderness Act, and the heavy weight of all (until GWB effectively gutted the EPA) National Environmental Policy Act.

Now let's set the record straight. A Democratic Congress took the active lead in all of these initiatives, and, in doing so, was reflecting the newly awakening environmental consciousness of the folks who were actively forming what was called the counterculture. That Nixon signed these things was due to the fact that he saw this as an effort to stay on the good side of both Congress and the electorate so that he would be allowed to continue fighting "his war". It is almost a dead certainty that we would not have the same history in the environmental arena but for what was happening in Viet Nam.

And then we pulled the troops out of Nam (We, The People get 100% of the credit for that one) and thought we had won everything. People kicked back in the late seventies like never before, the right wing snuck up on us with Reagan/Bush, and, man, we've been screwed ever since.

So one lesson could be that if someone in Congress would kick up a big enough ruckus over Iraq, it wouldn't make any difference militarily, but Bush might just back off of some other stuff so that we don't take his toys away.

Another alternative is that we could get incensed enough to call The Second American Constitutional Convention, and just figure out how to run the whole shootin match intelligently.

[Kundera]

He was a Republican and his name was Theodore Roosevelt.

[CitizenE]

Actually, he was a Democrat, and his name was Thomas Jefferson.

[indypete]

He was a muppet and his name was Kermit.