Romney’s Bad Judgement

 

Not that you needed another reason to prefer Cain over Romney, but this is a good one, I think: (H/T Marc Morano at Climate Depot)

The GOP front-runner for 2012 sought advice on global warming and carbon emissions from the president’s current science czar — an advocate of de-developing America and population control.

Politics is said to make strange bedfellows, but no coupling in our view is more bizarre than when John Holdren, now President Obama’s assistant for science and technology, once advised GOP presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney on environmental policy.

Holdren’s bizarre views are best suited for an adviser to someone like, say, Pol Pot.

And if you think the Pol Pot analogy is extreme you should look into Holdren’s history sometime. I did for my book Watermelons and the thought that this guy has been allowed anywhere near the White House, let alone been appointed Obama’s democratically unaccountable Science Czar should be counted among the blackest crimes of this disastrous presidency.

Consider the book Holdren wrote in 1977 (with fellow eco-catastrophists Paul and Anne Ehrlich) called Ecoscience.

Besides advocating state-enforced abortions for undesirables and the mass sterilisation of humans through drugs in the water supply, the book argues for the creation of a “Planetary Regime”. This Planetary Regime – perhaps run under the auspices of “UNEP and the United Nations population agencies” – would “control the development, administration, conservation and distribution of all natural resources, renewable or non-renewable, at least insofar as international implications exist.” [I particularly dig that so- extreme-and-scary-it’s-funny use of the italicised ‘all’] (P942-3)

And there’s more. This Planetary Regime “might also be a logical central agency for regulating all international trade….including all food on the international market.” And, of course, it would be given responsibility “for determining the optimum population for the world and for each region and for arbitrating various countries’ shares within their regional limits.” Oh and obviously, in order to ensure the New World Order runs smoothly, there would need to be “an armed international organization, a global analogue of a police force” – just in case formerly free citizens around the world started getting uppity about the “partial surrender of sovereignty to an international organization.” (P.917)

 

And Romney thought this guy was worth consulting for advice? What does that say about his judgement?

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  1. Profile Photo Inactive
    @liberaljim

    If Romney gets the GOP nod America will be given a choice between voting for a white Obama or a Black Obama.

    • #1
  2. Profile Photo Member
    @cdor
    liberal jim: If Romney gets the GOP nod America will be given a choice between voting for a white Obama or a Black Obama. · Oct 15 at 1:07pm

    I am no Romney fan, but lj, the hyperbole is pretty thick on that statement.

    • #2
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    @RichardYoung

    So your idea of good judgment is to only seek input on complicated issues from people who think like you do?

    • #3
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    @MelFoil
    Richard Young: So your idea of good judgment is to only seek input on complicated issues from people who think like you do? · Oct 15 at 1:21pm

    If it’s an issue at all, it’s a federal or international issue. Why would an individual state do this unilaterally? A state would only push this if it’s involved in some evangelization on the subject. This is Mitt leading the way…the wrong way…again.

    • #4
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    @SeverelyLtd
    Richard Young: So your idea of good judgment is to only seek input on complicated issues from people who think like you do? · Oct 15 at 1:21pm

    Most of us look for input from people whose judgement we feel we can trust. Looking at someone’s choice of advisers can be very telling, and given Mitt’s penchant for straying far from conservative thinking I think this is just another nail in the coffin of his trustworthiness. I hope I don’t have to vote for this guy.

    • #5
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    @CasBalicki
    Richard Young: So your idea of good judgment is to only seek input on complicated issues from people who think like you do? · Oct 15 at 1:21pm

    The issue is that idiots seek out idiots to gain idiotic advice on pseudo-scientific issues.

    • #6
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    @RichardYoung
    Cas Balicki

    Richard Young: So your idea of good judgment is to only seek input on complicated issues from people who think like you do? · Oct 15 at 1:21pm

    The issue is that idiots seek out idiots to gain idiotic advice on pseudo-scientific issues. · Oct 15 at 1:51pm

    Wow! That’s persuasive. Romney has skated along pretty well for being an idiot. Who would have known?

    • #7
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    @FatDave

    What I really find disturbing is how much more we know this time around about Romney. I had planned to vote for him in the primary, and I even sent him some money a few days before he dropped out of the race. (Since he dropped out, I vote for Ron Paul as a protest against McCain and his stalking horse, Huckabee.) Romney had the fiscal responsibility and competence mantle, if being a bit squishy. Why hadn’t all we’ve learned in this campaign come out last time around, when Romney had progressed much further down the road to the White House?

    My standard response to friends’ complaints about Obama has been, “What has Obama done that McCain wouldn’t have done?” Now I’m asking myself, “What has Obama done that Romney won’t do?” I hope Cain sticks with it at least through Virginia’s primary, so I can vote with a clean conscience.

    • #8
  9. Profile Photo Inactive
    @CasBalicki
    Richard Young

    Cas Balicki

    Richard Young: So your idea of good judgment is to only seek input on complicated issues from people who think like you do? · Oct 15 at 1:21pm

    The issue is that idiots seek out idiots to gain idiotic advice on pseudo-scientific issues. · Oct 15 at 1:51pm
    Wow! That’s persuasive. Romney has skated along pretty well for being an idiot. Who would have known? · Oct 15 at 2:21pm

    Yeah! and when he’s elected he’ll likely allow the EPA to continue killing the economy. Anyone who can’t see their way through the pseudo-science that is AGW is an idiot, in my view. The reality is that Romney is a bad choice. I only have to write Romneycare = Obamacare = Democrat whipping stick to prove it. That he may be doing well, says more about the field than it does about him. And if you can’t see that, or you find is unpersuasive, let’s wait until this Turkey is elected to continue this discussion. Obama, white indeed.

    • #9
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    @TeamAmerica

    Um, Cass, your P.M. Harper is more conservative and has better judgment than Obama or Romney. If either of them is elected, could you sponsor me for Canadian citizenship? :-)

    • #10
  11. Profile Photo Member
    @

    Nobody better tell Jen Rubin.

    • #11
  12. Profile Photo Inactive
    @GiveMeLiberty
    cdor

    liberal jim: If Romney gets the GOP nod America will be given a choice between voting for a white Obama or a Black Obama. · Oct 15 at 1:07pm

    I am no Romney fan, but lj, the hyperbole is pretty thick on that statement. · Oct 15 at 1:16pm

    Maybe it would be better said as Obama or Obama lite. 8D

    • #12
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    @TomWilson

    Romney has met and spoke with Holdren, that’s the smoking gun? Do you have any evidence he agrees with him?

    “I am uncertain how much of the warming, however, is attributable to man and how much is attributable to factors out of our control. I do not support radical feel-good policies like a unilateral U.S. cap-and-trade mandate. Such policies would have little effect on climate but could cripple economic growth with devastating results for people across the planet.” — Mitt Romney No Apology, p. 227

    Please show credible evidence Romney has changed his opinion on “global warming” then I’ll think of of voting for someone else.

    • #13
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    @Pseudodionysius

    If the word “pseudo” gets used one more time in this thread, I get a carbon credit.

    • #14
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    @GilBailie

    Keep the heat on. Quin Hillyer has a great post-debate piece at American Spectator:

    http://spectator.org/archives/2011/10/14/without-visuals-a-different-im/print

    • #15
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    @jetstream
    Pseudodionysius: If the word “pseudo” gets used one more time in this thread, I get a carbon credit. · Oct 15 at 3:51p

    Carbon credit? That will have to be a pseudo-credit, only exchangeable for one unit of pseudo-warming.

    • #16
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    @DavidWilliamson
    Pseudodionysius: If the word “pseudo” gets used one more time in this thread, I get a carbon credit. · Oct 15 at 3:51pm

    There ya go.

    One of the main reasons why I support Mr Cain, rather than the Rino–squish Mr Romney.

    • #17
  18. Profile Photo Inactive
    @JamesOfEngland
    Cas Balicki

    Richard Young

    Cas Balicki

    Richard Young:

    Yeah! and when he’s elected he’ll likely allow the EPA to continue killing the economy. Anyone who can’t see their way through the pseudo-science that is AGW is an idiot, in my view. The reality is that Romney is a bad choice. I only have to write Romneycare = Obamacare = Democrat whipping stick to prove it. That he may be doing well, says more about the field than it does about him. And if you can’t see that, or you find is unpersuasive, let’s wait until this Turkey is elected to continue this discussion. Obama, white indeed.

    Ann Coulter talks about this with Chris Christie’s rhetorical support for warmists while vetoing their bill. Mitt’s politeness to warmists meant that Massachusetts and Rhode Island were the only states in the region not to enter the regional cap and trade compact (Deval entered the 11 state/ 3 province compact when he took over). If Mitt had fought openly, the hundreds of veto overrides would have been added to by a cap and trade bill. Romney’s record is strong on resisting environmentalists in practice. Why prefer rhetoric?

    • #18
  19. Profile Photo Inactive
    @JamesOfEngland
    Fat Dave: What I really find disturbing is how much more we know this time around about Romney. I had planned to vote for him in the primary, and I even sent him some money a few days before he dropped out of the race. (Since he dropped out, I vote for Ron Paul as a protest against McCain and his stalking horse, Huckabee.) Romney had the fiscal responsibility and competence mantle, if being a bit squishy. Why hadn’t all we’ve learned in this campaign come out last time around, when Romney had progressed much further down the road to the White House?

    My standard response to friends’ complaints about Obama has been, “What has Obama done that McCain wouldn’t have done?” Now I’m asking myself, “What has Obama done that Romney won’t do?” I hope Cain sticks with it at least through Virginia’s primary, so I can vote with a clean conscience. ·

    Obamacare, Stimulus, NLRB appointments, Sotomayor, Leddbetter, Embryonic Stem Cells, Cash for Clunkers, Fast and Furious, UAW bailouts, Dodd-Frank, Kagan, Solyndra, FTA hiatus, ACORN payments, Holder (Black Panther protection, other Voting Rights Act issues), University civil rights… Out of space

    • #19
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    @PaulARahe
    Richard Young

    Cas Balicki

    Richard Young: So your idea of good judgment is to only seek input on complicated issues from people who think like you do? · Oct 15 at 1:21pm

    The issue is that idiots seek out idiots to gain idiotic advice on pseudo-scientific issues. · Oct 15 at 1:51pm
    Wow! That’s persuasive. Romney has skated along pretty well for being an idiot. Who would have known? · Oct 15 at 2:21pm

    Yes, Richard, and Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. An impressive guy, right?

    • #20
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    @RichardYoung
    Paul A. Rahe

    Yes, Richard, and Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. An impressive guy, right? · Oct 15 at 4:34pm

    If your point is that intelligent people can govern badly fine. But I never suggested otherwise. I simply find the rhetoric around here about Romney over the top. Most of the people posting (including myself) have never met the guy, have no real idea of the conviction of his positions and certainly are in no position to judge how intelligent he is. Those who have met him (Chris Christie comes to mind) find him persuasive and a man of integrity. I think a little moderation is in order when talking about all of the candidates. Otherwise Ricochet descends into the same silly threads you can read anywhere.

    • #21
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    @Palaeologus

    Romney shouldn’t have anything to do with a guy like this. Ever.

    Meeting with 10 academics will likely result in meeting with at least 3 loons. But there are loons and loons. Holdren is bad news. Romney should disavow any relationship with the reproduction police.

    Paul A. Rahe

    Richard Young

    Cas Balicki

    Richard Young: So your idea of good judgment is to only seek input on complicated issues from people who think like you do? · Oct 15 at 1:21pm

    The issue is that idiots seek out idiots to gain idiotic advice on pseudo-scientific issues. · Oct 15 at 1:51pm
    Wow! That’s persuasive. Romney has skated along pretty well for being an idiot. Who would have known? · Oct 15 at 2:21pm
    Yes, Richard, and Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. An impressive guy, right? · Oct 15 at 4:34pm

    Barry has surely made an impression upon America… to it’s detriment. He’s a chump, and more than a bit of a buffoon, but he isn’t stupid.

    • #22
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    @CharlesGordon
    Gil Bailie: debate…

    ROSE: The rules are one minute for an answer

    GOLDMAN: … Governor Romney, it’s 2013, and the European debt crisis has worsened. Countries are defaulting. Europe’s largest banks are on the verge of bankruptcy. Contagion has spread to the U.S. And the global financial system is on the brink. What would you do differently than what President Bush, Henry Paulson, and Ben Bernanke did in 2008?

    [Stay at a Holiday Inn Express???]

    TUMULTY: Congresswoman Bachmann… Do you think it’s right that no Wall Street executives have gone to jail for the damage they did to the economy?

    [I believe the filthy rich are guilty unless proven innocent, due process a waste of time. As president, I will ignore everything but misguided populist sentiments of fairness.]

    Our candidates dealing with these journalists should use their minute for rehearsed statements on the positions known to be important, even if they do not address whether unnamed executives should rot in jail for unspecific charges to inexistent crimes.

    The only evidence of competence journalists today have shown consists of maintaining an insuperable distance between themselves and any recognizable standard that would threaten their immunity from professional malpractice liability.

    • #23
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    @JamesGawron

    James, not that I don’t want to discuss Romney but you have brought back an infamous name from the past. If there is a special place in Hell for mindless enviro obsessives, Paul Ehrlich deserves the spot. This lunatic has been screaming that the sky is falling for 40 years. If every person who lost their job because of the this phoney loon could jump up and down on the S.O.B. 50 times it still wouldn’t be enough. Nobody as of yet has really blamed idiots like Ehrlich for the amount of human misery they have caused with their misguided theories. Maybe we need to get to it.

    • #24
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    @FatDave
    James Of England

    Fat Dave:

    Obamacare, Stimulus, NLRB appointments, Sotomayor, Leddbetter, Embryonic Stem Cells, Cash for Clunkers, Fast and Furious, UAW bailouts, Dodd-Frank, Kagan, Solyndra, FTA hiatus, ACORN payments, Holder (Black Panther protection, other Voting Rights Act issues), University civil rights… Out of space · Oct 16 at 4:18am

    Do you really think McCain wouldn’t have signed bills similar to Obamacare, Stimulus, Cash for Clunkers etc? As far as appointments go, McCain would’ve appointed different people from slightly more centrist constituencies (Souter ring a bell?), but the outcome would’ve been the same. His cronies would’ve run different corporations. And I just don’t see McCain reining in maverick law enforcement. On the whole, I don’t see us being much better off if McCain were President today.

    • #25
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    @TomWilson

    James Delingpole “And Romney thought this guy was worth consulting for advice? What does that say about his judgement?”

    How do you know the nature of the conversation? Was it taped, is there a transcript?

    You make it sound as if Romney went to John Holdren hat in hand looking for advice. Is there something a bright fellow might learn in a conversation Holdren that could give him a leg up in a debate with Obama later on?

    • #26
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    @Pseudodionysius

    I think its clear that Romney was on an undercover sting operation to stop the madness.

    • #27
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    @rayconandlindacon

    And Romney thought this guy was worth consulting for advice? What does that say about his judgment?

    He has none!

    • #28
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    @JamesDelingpole

    @Tom Wilson. I think this is called “projection” isn’t it? Or maybe a superabundance of unmerited generosity? I can believe many impossible things before breakfast but the idea that Romney went to see John Holdren in the spirit of “he’s evil and insane, I know that, but he might just give me an insight into the mind of Obama” isn’t one of them. I’m afraid that consultation of Holdren is entirely of a piece with Romney’s RINO values generally. He just doesn’t get it, that’s all.

    • #29
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    @MelFoil

    From: December 7, 2005, ROMNEY ANNOUNCES STRICT NEW CLEAN AIR REGULATIONS….

    http://myclob.pbworks.com/w/page/21956517/12-07-2005

    “Relative to off-site projects, the new regulations propose a two-tiered system of triggers and safety valves. […] If the price of offsets climbs yet higher to a point with unacceptable economic impacts, or $10.00/ton, firms can then meet their emissions obligations by paying into a Greenhouse Gas Expendable Trust. The Trust will be used by the state to purchase new offsets or invest in the development of technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The combination of these market-based mechanisms with stringent CO2 caps will lead to cost-effective environmental gains. “Today’s regulations will achieve our aggressive environmental goals and provide incentives to push technological development,” said Stephen Pritchard, Secretary of Environmental Affairs. In the development of greenhouse gas policy, Romney Administration officials have elicited input from environmental and economic policy experts. These include John Holden [sic], professor of environmental policy at Harvard University and chair of the National Commission on Energy Policy and Billy Pizer, an economist at Resources for the Future, an environmental policy think-tank based in Washington D.C.

    • #30
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