McCain comes out singing on global warming and energy

Karl Rove might think global warming is the province of shrill Hollywood harpies, but John McCain knows better. In a speech Monday ahead of his expected entry into the presidential race tomorrow, the Arizona senator termed global warming “a serious and urgent economic, environmental, and national-security challenge” and said that the issue “isn’t a Hollywood invention, nor is doing something about it a vanity of Cassandra-like hysterics.” (We now pause so you can roll that delicious phrase around on your tongue, because some underpaid speechwriter spent a long time on it.) McCain dissed oil, pushed for energy independence, and expressed support for carbon caps. The Republican candidate-to-be is just one among a crowd jostling to have their energy plans heard; over the weekend, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards all touted their plans at Earth Day events, and Clinton announced that her campaign will go carbon neutral, a step Edwards has already taken. Only 19 months to go.