Barack And McCain: No Surprises

Really I found no surprises when I looked over McCain and Obama's arguments. Both the candidates seemed to take a rather middle of the road approach. Obama as a more liberal candidate was slightly more progressive than McCain when it came to carbon emissions, and he focused more on turning the new Green wave into a market for more jobs and more American-made products that McCain did, which, I would have expected because he is a democrat.

In terms of Clapp and Dauvergne’s categories I think that neither candidate would fall perfectly into a particular category. However, because both candidates support a cap-and-trade policy when it comes to carbon emissions, a policy reminiscent of the Kyoto protocol, I would say that both candidates recognize the ability of economic incentives to control environmental problems. So, I would characterize both candidates as market liberals.

I think that many people would be surprised by how similar the two candidates platforms are when it comes to issues of climate change and energy conservation. I, however, was not surprised at all to see the similarities. Both candidates are mainstream party politicians, who are not running on a platform heavy with environmental concerns. I think if anything, the Clapp and Dauvergne categories helped me to see the similarities between the two candidates, not the differences. I was sort of surprised to see just how focused Obama was on the economic implications of environmental policy, as his positions focused slightly more on these factors than McCain's seemed to.

I would say that Obama's policies make more sense, not because they are extremely different than McCain's but because they focus on seeing environmental change as a possible positive for our economy. Obama's position shows that he sees the emerging energy crisis as a possibility for a new market, and a possibility to make the United States a powerful contender on environmental issues. By making environmental policy seem like it will have a positive effect on our environment Obama's policies stand to see implication and support.

(Tess Nowadly)