For Obama, No Opportunity Too Big To Blow

Contrary to countless reports, the debacle in Copenhagen was not
everyone's fault. It did not happen because human beings are incapable
of agreeing, or are inherently self-destructive. Nor was it all was
China's fault, or the fault of the hapless UN.

There's plenty of blame to go around, but there was one country
that possessed unique power to change the game. It didn't use it. If
Barack Obama had come to Copenhagen with a transformative and inspiring
commitment to getting the U.S. economy off fossil fuels, all the other
major emitters would have stepped up. The EU, Japan, China and India
had all indicated that they were willing to increase their levels of
commitment, but only if the U.S. took the lead. Instead of leading,
Obama arrived with embarrassingly low targets and the heavy emitters of
the world took their cue from him.

(The "deal" that was ultimately rammed through was nothing more
than a grubby pact between the world's biggest emitters: I'll pretend
that you are doing something about climate change if you pretend that I
am too. Deal? Deal.)

I understand all the arguments about not promising what he can't
deliver, about the dysfunction of the U.S. Senate, about the art of the
possible. But spare me the lecture about how little power poor Obama
has. No President since FDR has been handed as many opportunities to
transform the U.S. into something that doesn't threaten the stability
of life on this planet. He has refused to use each and every one of
them. Let's look at the big three.

Blown Opportunity Number 1: The Stimulus Package
When Obama came to office he had a free hand and a blank check to
design a spending package to stimulate the economy. He could have used
that power to fashion what many were calling a "Green New Deal" -- to
build the best public transit systems and smart grids in the world.
Instead, he experimented disastrously with reaching across the aisle to
Republicans, low-balling the size of the stimulus and blowing much of
it on tax cuts. Sure, he spent some money on weatherization, but public
transit was inexplicably short changed while highways that perpetuate
car culture won big.

Blown Opportunity Number 2: The Auto Bailouts
Speaking of the car culture, when Obama took office he also found
himself in charge of two of the big three automakers, and all of the
emissions for which they are responsible. A visionary leader committed
to the fight against climate chaos would obviously have used that power
to dramatically reengineer the failing industry so that its factories
could build the infrastructure of the green economy the world
desperately needs. Instead Obama saw his role as uninspiring down-sizer
in chief, leaving the fundamentals of the industry unchanged.

Blown Opportunity Number 3: The Bank Bailouts
Obama, it's worth remembering, also came to office with the big banks
on their knees -- it took real effort not to nationalize them. Once
again, if Obama had dared to use the power that was handed to him by
history, he could have mandated the banks to provide the loans for
factories to be retrofitted and new green infrastructure to be built.
Instead he declared that the government shouldn't tell the failed banks
how to run their businesses. Green businesses report that it's harder
than ever to get a loan.

Imagine if these three huge economic engines -- the banks, the
auto companies, the stimulus bill -- had been harnessed to a common
green vision. If that had happened, demand for a complementary energy
bill would have been part of a coherent transformative agenda.

Whether the bill had passed or not, by the time Copenhagen had
rolled around, the U.S. would already have been well on its way to
dramatically cutting emissions, poised to inspire, rather than
disappoint, the rest of the world.

There are very few U.S. Presidents who have squandered as many
once-in-a-generation opportunities as Barack Obama. More than anyone
else, the Copenhagen failure belongs to him.

Research support for Naomi Klein's reporting from Copenhagen was provided by the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute.