Gop wins likely mean obama cant hand europe

WASHINGTON, D.C. — We are speeding towards climate "catastrophe," United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned the World Climate Conference in Geneva two months ago.

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The seas could rise seven feet and wash over coasts, river deltas and low-lying islands, and the time to prevent the threatening flood is now, the UN leader said as he implored the world’s leaders to sign a new climate agreement when the so-called Kyoto II conference meets in Copenhagen from Dec. 7 to 17. Speaking in Washington on Tuesday, President Barack Obama signalled that Copenhagen may have to wait. Mr. Obama had just wrapped up a meeting with Angela Merkel, the newly re-elected conservative chancellor of Germany, when he told journalists that he and Mrs. Merkel had agreed to "redouble our efforts … to ensure that we create a framework for progress" in Copenhagen. There is a world of difference between a firm commitment to action and mere hope that something will get done. Obama used weasel words where, I would think, the German leader expected strong, clear language. But Obama is a realist. He knows that Americans demand jobs and that swift curbing of climate-threatening greenhouse gases would require cuts in energy production and use that would wipe out more jobs — and probably his presidency. There are no higher stakes in politics than power. Considering the likely fate of Democrats if their president’s decisions result in still higher job losses, it becomes unmistakable that Obama’s commitment to Kyoto II will take a distant second place. His weasel words to Mrs. Merkel tell me that Obama had a good inkling what he would hear from American voters before midnight Tuesday — Election Day in Virginia, New Jersey, New York City and the 23rd congressional district in the northern-most reaches of upstate New York, nuzzled against eastern Ontario and western Quebec. Democrats have won the district only six times since 1915. And their luck continued this time because the Republicans were torn by internal strife and their candidate was left out in the cold. But there was really bad news for Obama in Virginia and New Jersey as Republicans swept Virginia, and unhorsed Wall Street billionaire Jon Corzine as governor of heavily Democratic New Jersey. Republicans were hoping they’d return to office in Virginia because they had a stronger gubernatorial candidate. But Democrats too had legitimate expectations. A year ago, Obama comfortably carried the state. He was the first successful Democratic candidate since John F. Kennedy’s unexpected win in 1960. But if Democrats losing Virginia so soon is bad enough news for Obama, their defeat in New Jersey spells political catastrophe. Practically up to voting day, Obama campaigned for Corzine, the incumbent governor. The president made three rapid-fire incursions into the state. He put his prestige on the line — and nothing helped. Neither Obama’s famous rhetoric nor Corzine’s billions and his campaign’s ridiculing the GOP candidate as a "fat" slob were enough to beat back the Republican underdog. The depth of Obama’s rout on Tuesday would be alarming to any politician and attempts to soft pedal it are inevitable. Obama’s press aides are minimizing Tuesday’s results. Doing the job they are paid for, they will spin the local politics angle — and I think Obama’s friends in the media will go along with the story. But I would bet the farm Angela Merkel is not fooled. Obama took a shellacking Tuesday night and, combined with the voters’ anger at continuing job losses, that can mean only one thing: loss of clout at home and abroad. Copenhagen, it seems, will wind up without an American signature and this omission is likely to encourage other countries to hold back. I imagine that even Germany, the most seriously committed global-warming firefighter in the world, may lose heart. What UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will say next is anybody’s guess, but the White House can hardly be sanguine about what American voters will say in the mid-term congressional elections next year.