Deja vu

Don't stop thinkin' about tomorrow:

Whatever you might think about Hillary Clinton, she has gravitas. I've seen her in person twice now and I've felt the same vibe in the room both times, a sense that a person of historical significance has entered. She seemed somewhat muted Sat. evening, perhaps because she was slightly under the weather (I heard her people had requested tissues). Intentionally or not, her serious demeanor worked -- it played off the activist energy in the crowd and came off as hard-bitten, realistic, even, dare I say, presidential.

One of the sobering messages she delivered is that when she mentions energy independence, crowds go nuts. When she mentions global warming, there's silence. "The public isn't there yet." This means, for one thing, that greens need to do a lot more to carry the message out. For another, they need to be realistic about what can be accomplished in the current political environment. Effectively, she was saying, "I'm with you; I understand the problem. But you need to give me some room to work -- attacking those of us on your side for insufficient purity isn't helpful."

Gravitas. It's what gave us weak CAFE standards and SUVs, the Byrd-Hagel Resolution, and Ralph "Al Gore is a corporate whore" Nader back when the other Clinton was in office. But the sad state of affairs in this country when it comes to environmental policy is that this might be the best we can muster up, so folks like me oughta just shut up and wait because sometime in the future we'll have a President and Congress who are willing and able to act as long as we stay on board and help prevent another Republican supermajority.