Denver 2008 -- By Acclamation

Denver -- Last night when Hillary Clinton moved to make the nomination of Barack Obama unanimous, it was clear (as it was when she made her speech the day before, and when Bill Clinton made his impassioned call for the election of Obama earlier in the evening) that the Democratic party is coming together -- whether the media likes it or not. One of the remarkable things about being with the delegates this week is that the buzz about the Hillary-Barack split has been vastly less than the media's emphasis on it would indicate. Unity, it appears, doesn't sell papers.

Another kind of unity was on display at the bloggers' "Big Tent," as John Podesta, T. Boone Pickens, and I agreed that we could not solve our nation's energy problems by drilling and that, as I put it, the current political emphasis on whether or not to open up more of the coastline to drilling is a Karl Rove-style "head fake." 

I think Pickens is real -- but he is a conservative Republican, so there are lots of skeptics out there.

But one of the big issues swirling around the Pickens plan is that  much of our current natural gas production is irresponsible and poorly located and regulated (although Pickens is not calling for an increase natural gas production). So, after the event, the blogging community was focused on that issue, as well as on how to break the gridlock that is blocking progress on energy. You can watch the interview with the bloggers here.

Comments

[Julia]

Thank You Carl Pope for working with T. Boone Pickens. This is the kind of bi-partisan effort our country needs right now. It also helps me trust what Pickens is saying if I know that you think he's for real.

Environmentalists are everywhere, not just in one political camp.