Political Eye
By

Stephanie Condon /

CBS News/ November 1, 2012, 3:51 PM

Bloomberg endorses Obama, citing climate change

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg today endorsed President Obama, citing the urgent need to address climate change.

"The devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to New York City and much of the Northeast -- in lost lives, lost homes and lost business -- brought the stakes of Tuesday's presidential election into sharp relief," the mayor wrote in the opinion section of his eponymous news operation, Bloomberg News. "Our climate is changing. And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it might be -- given this week's devastation -- should compel all elected leaders to take immediate action."

New York City was forced to evacuate neighborhoods twice in just 14 months because of hurricanes, Bloomberg noted. While the city has taken steps toward sustainability, the mayor said cities can't do it alone.

"We need leadership from the White House -- and over the past four years, President Barack Obama has taken major steps to reduce our carbon consumption," he wrote, citing the higher fuel efficiency standards the president set, as well as the tighter controls for mercury emissions.

An independent known for backing centrist politicians from both the Democratic and Republican parties, Bloomberg for months had declined to endorse a candidate. In an interview with The Atlantic magazine last month, Bloomberg said Mr. Obama's biggest accomplishment in his first term was "just getting elected" because it served as evidence of greater racial unity in the country.

After Sandy left millions without power and crippled New York City's transportation system, Mr. Obama offered to visit the city and assess the storm damage, but Bloomberg turned down the offer. The president instead toured storm damage in New Jersey with Republican Gov. Chris Christie.

Climate change has received little attention on the campaign trail, although Mr. Obama often pledges during campaign rallies to keep pursuing clean energy technology, declaring that climate change is "not a hoax." After Hurricane Sandy devastated the Eastern Seaboard, former President Bill Clinton this week railed against Mr. Obama's rival Mitt Romney for opposing Mr. Obama's clean energy policies.

Bloomberg noted that Romney signed onto a cap-and-trade plan to reduce carbon emissions as governor of Massachusetts but no longer supports cap-and-trade.

"This issue is too important," Bloomberg said. "We need determined leadership at the national level to move the nation and the world forward."

Bloomberg also criticized Romney for reversing course on other issues like abortion rights, gun control and health care reform. "If the 1994 or 2003 version of Mitt Romney were running for president, I may well have voted for him because, like so many other independents, I have found the past four years to be, in a word, disappointing," he wrote.

The mayor also criticized Mr. Obama for serving more as a partisan populist than a pragmatic centrist in his first term. But he added that there's still hope for Mr. Obama in his second term to work with Republicans. "If he listens to people on both sides of the aisle, and builds the trust of moderates, he can fulfill the hope he inspired four years ago and lead our country toward a better future," he wrote.

© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
129 Comments Add a Comment
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B2O2 says:
A group called ClimateSilence.org has made a great 30-second ad of Romney's idiotic mocking of the issue at the Republican convention. If you want to help get it onto the air in some of the swing states that were hit hard by this mega-storm, you can go to:

https://loudsauce.com/campaigns/416-share-romney-s-climate-joke-with-victims-of-the-frankenstorm

These people need to know who is with them, and who is having a ball laughing at the thing that just hit them in the face.
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ouzzie22 says:
Let me get this straight. Global warming is causing these hurricanes? Did we not have these storms well before fossil fuels were used and when has any human been able to stop it from raining? We have more regulations and scrubber systems set in place than ever before and don't forget that most of the mills and factories that did spew out pollution have been closed for sometime. Use common sense people.
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rastus999 says:
So what exactly has obutthead done for global warming to earn such high praise? Probably about as much as he did to earn the nobel peace prize. That is to say, nothing.

The only thing I can think of that he did was flush billions of tax dollars down the toilet "investing" in green energy companies that have all gone bankrupt without producing anything.
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dj_chi replies:
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The bad loans were a small part of the whole program. Even Bush had his string of duds. I bet you could care less if a GOP president made bad loans - or lost billions of dollars that were sent by plane on pallets, and then disappeared after landing in Iraq. But a Dem president's people make some bad loans it and you cry bloody murder.

P.S. Solyndra was first targeted for the loan program by Bush's people. I bet you give him a pass for that.
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TimeToEvolve says:
"I think the global warming debate is now pretty much over and people recognize the need associated with providing sources which do not generate the heat that is currently provided by fossil fuels."

-Mitt Romney 2003
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TimeToEvolve says:
Man made global climate change is upon us in a big way and it will be the most important issue of our lifetimes. This should not even be a political issue but all politicians should be talking about it on a daily basis. Especially in America where we are the main cause of the problem and have been for a long time.
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ThomasSense says:
Noval: You are right that our world revolves around oil. So, now is the time to make wise choices how we use all of our fossil fuels. A climate scientist recently stated that presently we have enough fossil fuels in reserve to dramatically change the climate. It no longer is a matter of finding more. It is matter of not reaching a point of "Uh oh!"
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aubfmet says:
Climate change is bigger than Bloomberg and Obama put together and no one will ignore it. It should not be a factor in the election.
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Noval53 says:
What do climate MAD scientists and money wasting politicians mean when they say "We must address climate change". They mean to give us carbon taxes, environmental fees, costly "green" regulations, and much higher costs for everything moved by oil derived fuel (in trucks); which is everything. Most of the globe is flat broke, other than the Chinese and the drug cartels. Address fixing the economy stupid.
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thesafesurfer says:
Can we give the global warming fear mongers and the liberal Democrats the Blue states of the Northeast and the Great Lakes along with the West Coast and let everyone who doesn't believe in fairy tales or have an insatiable sense of entitlement the Red States in the rest of the country?

Then we will finally know whose ideology really works, whose knowledge is correct, and who is full of fantasies and fiction.
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democracy8 replies:
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"have an insatiable sense of entitlement" Hate to be the one to break the news to you, but the Red States TAKE more taxes than they pay in, while the Blue States PAY more than they TAKE--FACT!
Noval53 replies:
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California - democrat run & deeply in dept.
North Dakota - becoming more & more Republican - nice surplus of cash
Illinois - democrat run with lots of dead but still quite active voters.
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democracy8 says:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-29/romney-avoids-taxes-via-loophole-cutting-mormon-donations.html
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