Newsweek Cover: Who's the Greenest of Them All?

The April 14, 2008 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, April 7), "Who's the Greenest of Them All?" finds out where the presidential candidates stand on the environment and what's keeping environmental groups from endorsing one of them. The cover package also includes the top 10 fixes for the planet; Dan Gross on what Iceland can teach the world and how Major League Baseball is going green. Plus: the popularity of parent coaching and Julie Andrews on her new memoir. (PRNewsFoto/NEWSWEEK) NEW YORK, NY UNITED STATES 04/06/2008


6 Apr 2008 17:01 Africa/Lagos


NEWSWEEK: Cover: Who's The Greenest of Them All?

Growing Public Concern Over Environment Will Put Pressure on Next President to Rethink America's Policy on Global Warming

Environmental Groups Still Undecided on Which Candidate has Strongest Ideas on Tackling Green Issues

NEW YORK, April, 6, 2008 /PRNewswire/ --

If the United States wants to have a voice in setting the new course of energy and technological change in 2009, when a new international treaty on global warming is negotiated, replacing the expiring Kyoto Protocol, it will need a leader who takes the issue of climate change very seriously. Luckily, with John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House, it likely will. In the April 14 Newsweek cover package, "Who's the Greenest of Them All?" (on newsstands Monday, April 7), which is also the second annual project on "Environment & Leadership," Senior Editor Jerry Adler reports on where the three candidates stand on the environment and why some environmental advocacy groups are having a tough time deciding whom to endorse.


(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080406/NYSU003 )


The environment has emerged as a leading issue in this election cycle; last year more than three voters in 10 said they would take a candidate's green credentials into account, according to pollster John Zogby, up from just 11 percent in 2005. "It was clear starting all the way back in Iowa and New Hampshire that this campaign would be much more about the environment," says Dave Willett, a spokesman for the Sierra Club.


The League of Conservation Voters, which influences mainstream environmental groups when it comes to national politics, hasn't chosen a candidate for 2008. In its ranking of senators based on their positions on 15 votes in 2007 (including farm subsidies, gas mileage and biofuel standards), Obama and Clinton are considered strong environmental candidates. "It's clear from both of their voting records in the Senate that they're committed to supporting energy efficiency and slowing global warming," says league spokesman Jay Natoli. "In fact, they're too similar to say at this point that one is better than the other. [As for] McCain, his plan isn't as strong, but he has sponsored and supported legislation that shows he cares about the environment. But at this point, we're not ready to endorse." McCain's 2007 league rating is zero, putting him in the company of eight other Republicans, including the global-warming denier James Inhofe. But that's because McCain missed all 15 key votes; the league counts a missed vote the same as a vote against its position. His lifetime LCV rating, however, is 26 percent, compared with an average of 16 percent for all Republicans. As recently as 2004, when his rating for the 108th Congress reached 56 percent, the league endorsed him for re-election to the Senate.


McCain is an appealing figure to some environmentalists, and viewed as the most acceptable of the major GOP contenders, because he is a Republican from a Western state, whose occasional departures from Republican orthodoxy seem to be grounded in genuine conviction. "It's unusual to have a Republican candidate who openly disagrees with the Bush administration on the need for capping carbon emissions," says Dan Kammen, an authority on energy policy at UC Berkeley who has advised all three leading candidates and is now associated with the Obama campaign. In 2003, McCain introduced, with Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the first-ever bill to regulate carbon emissions in the United States. It never passed, but it was a landmark bill for its time. McCain has also sided with environmentalists on fuel-efficiency standards and the talismanic issue of protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. "We're waiting for [McCain] to further define his plan before we make any judgment about him," says Nick Berning, a spokesman for Friends of the Earth. "He could still surprise folks."


Also in the cover Package:

-- Editor-At-Large Evan Thomas and Washington Correspondent Pat Wingert
report that to truly tackle the greenhouse effect, it will require the
one thing from voters that few politicians dare to ask for and fewer
achieve: massive public sacrifice. Accomplishing this would require the
rhetoric of Barack Obama, the grit of Hillary Clinton and the courage
of John McCain -- all combined in one leader.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/130629

-- Reporter Anne Underwood offers 10 fixes for the planet, based on ideas
from scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs. The ideas include using
LED light bulbs, driving 300-mpg cars, using enormous kites to help
pull ships and having manufacturers produce products that are fully
recyclable.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/130625

-- Senior Editor and Columnist Daniel Gross writes that the United States,
and other developed nations, "can learn some valuable lessons from
Iceland about what happens when a society commits to the systematic
development of renewable energy."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/130626

-- National Correspondent Martha Brant reports on a new breed of M.B.A.
students who think it's possible to make money by going green. For
some, studying sustainable business practices just gives them a
competitive edge. For others, it's a fresh way of thinking about
business. These eco-M.B.A.s talk about the "triple bottom line"-people,
planet, profit.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/130591

-- Editorial Assistant Matthew Philips reports on how Natural Resources
Defense Council's Allen Hershkowitz's efforts lobbying Major League
Baseball's teams and their facilities to go green have started to pay
off. Last month the NRDC rolled out a team-specific greening-advisory
system for the NBA, MLB and NHL, designed to help clubs implement
ecofriendly practices by introducing them to local companies familiar
with composting and energy audits.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/130592

-- General Editor Anna Kuchment reports on the ecofriendly looks worn by
models during New York's fashion week. Future-Fashion, a show organized
by the New York-based nonprofit Earth Pledge, inspired many top
designers to work with sustainable fabrics such as sasawashi, peace
silk and hemp. Several have since pledged to incorporate organic
fabrics into their lines.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/130627

-- Senior Editor Sharon Begley writes about the errors that have plagued
efforts to green the planet, from not recycling properly, to the
pitfalls of hybrid cars to, "perhaps the greatest folly, ... the push
for ethanol to replace gasoline," she writes.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/130628

Read cover story at Newsweek

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Barack Obama Cannot Beat John McCain

The hallmarks of leadership are not judged by political stump speeches or designer suits, but by the demonstration of bravery and wisdom in the service of humanity.

I have noticed undemocratic political rancor among the Democrats and I am disappointed that Senator Barack Obama is acting more like a Republican in his press statements and his wife Michelle Obama has been using subtle tirade against Senator Hillary Clinton. The Obamas’ look more desperate than the Clintons, because they have staked so much on winning the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party and losing it could be devastating to their egos. Barack Obama does not want to contest for the presidency when he is over 50 years, because his egocentric ambition is to become the first “Black” President of America before he clocks 50 and he is most likely to give up if he fails to make it in 2008.

I am impressed by the spirit of endurance of Senator John McCain who has not given up since he lost in 2000 and 2004 and even at 71, he is more determined than all the presidential candidates to succeed and become the next President of the United States of America.

Senator Barack Obama cannot beat Senator John McCain in the presidential election, because the majority of Caucasian American voters, American Latino voters and Asian-American voters will not vote for Senator Barack Obama if Senator Hillary Clinton is not the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. Most of the older women behind Senator Hillary Clinton will prefer to vote for Senator John McCain.
Senator Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama have been disrespectful to the older American voters and have made disparaging utterances at their rallies in mockery of these older folks in America for supporting Senator Hillary Clinton. America was not built by the youths of the Internet Age supporting him, but by the older generation who were born before and after the Great Depression. Those who invented the TV and the Computer and built the great roads, bridges, flyovers and towering skyscrapers of the great industries of America from the 1920s to the 1960s when Barack Obama and Michelle Obama were still babies in diapers.

I have weighed the characters of both Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on leadership and I have found Senator Barack Obama wanting. He lacks the humility and philosophical profundity for the leadership of all Americans and the nation building of a New America in the 21st century.

I have read him and listened to his so called great speeches and found them to be perfunctory victory speeches that were merely embellished for impressionistic motives without great depth, because he was only paraphrasing the speeches of the eulogized American preachers and political leaders. I have heard them all before. Senator Barack Obama has been overrated by the American news media, manipulated by his political spin-doctors who are only puffing him up for their own Machiavellian power struggle for the political mercantilism of American Democracy.
Senator Barack Obama lacks the dignity, political integrity, and maturity for leadership. Finis.

American Presidential Candidates: Who Is Breaking Which Ceiling?

American Presidential Candidates: Who is breaking which ceiling?

"I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States. I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women's movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I am equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or special interests. I am the candidate of the people."
~Shirley St. Hill Chisholm, on January 25, 1972, announcing her candidacy for President of the United States of America.

Beyond Skin Deep Presidential Egos Versus Feminist Presidential Eros

After the Iowa Caucuses, the psyche of frontrunners in the American presidential campaign became transparent. I analyzed the victory speeches of Senator Barack Obama of the Democratic Party and Mike Huckabee of the Republican Party. I am more interested in the sensibilities of the Democrats. I have been hearing echoes of feminist and racist heroics all over the place.
Who is breaking which ceiling?

“He’s demonstrated that a mixed-race guy with a Muslim name can get far,” said Tony Clayton, 43.“He has crossover appeal,” Mr. Clayton said, “and because of that he could win in a general election.”
~ The New York Times, January 5, 2008

Lest we forget, Barack Obama is not the first African American to win a presidential caucus, In 1984, Rev. Jesse Jackson became the second African American to mount a nationwide campaign for President of the United States, running as a Democrat. He won five primaries and caucuses.

The first African American woman elected to Congress, Shirley Chisholm (November 30, 1924 - January 1, 2005) was the first African American presidential candidate and she won 151 delegates’ votes.

If the goal of either Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton or Senator Barack Hussein Obama is all about breaking feminist or racist ceilings, then neither of them deserves to be the President of the United States of America.

Should black and colored American voters support Senator Barack Obama, because he is black and now the flag bearer of their race to fulfill their dream of having the first black President of the United States of America or because he is the best presidential candidate for the office of the President?

Should the women in America vote for Senator Hillary Clinton, because she is a woman and their hope to elect the first female President of America or because she is capable to lead the United States of America?

The President of the United of America should be superior to any feminist, racist or religious equation.

America deserves more than an ego-tripping or daydreaming President.There is a higher ceiling to break than color, class, or creed.
The ceiling of the ignorance of the universal truth that our destinies are not in the stars, but in our own hands, therefore, we should no longer be misguided and misled by the fallacies and hypocrisies of class, sex, race and religion.

We can achieve as much as we believe, because every human has the right to live and work for his or her survival and welfare on earth in love, peace and unity without fear of any form of man’s inhumanity to man.

As Thomas Jefferson said:
“Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day.”

The same truth stressed by Bishop Ajayi Crowther that, “only the best is good enough for us”.
Therefore, we should elect the best, regardless of their sex, color, or creed.

The goal of the American presidential election should neither be for the narrow-minded dream of electing the first black president nor the first female president of America, because the election of the President of the United States of America should not be a battle of the sexes or a race contest, but the quest for what is best for America.

Human judgment should be based on good reasons and not swayed by their skin-deep sentiments or hormones.