Wrote this to the Washington Post about Mitt's climate change switch

Wrote this to the WashPost, in reply to Michael Gerson's PostPartisan blog post, "Is Romney Warming Up to Global Warming?"

"We can only hope that anything that Romney does that's a step away from a Tea Party position will convince more Tea Party voters that don't really want to vote for him that they shouldn't vote for him. This was a real nice little Etch-a-Sketch move by the Romster. In fact, some "green" Republicans (who are few) actually gave him campaign contributions hoping this is exactly the path he'd take. 

From Politico's "Green backers bet on Romney flip-flop":  
"Rob Sisson, president of the Republicans for Environmental Protection, said he’s scraping together personal funds to write a check to the Romney campaign after getting a chance to meet him for the first time last month during a town hall campaign stop in Kalamazoo, Mich.

“I think his record as governor was pretty good as far as Republicans go,” said Sisson, who also gave $1,000 last June to Jon Huntsman’s campaign. “I really get the sense from him and the folks around him with whom I’ve spoken that as president he’d really look at each situation, gather the data and really make a decision that’s best for the country.”

“If that goes against the grain of how he’s campaigning now, so be it,” Sisson added. “He’s going to be driven by data and facts and not emotions and getting pushed into one corner by one faction of the party.”

The thing is, he has a running mate that wants to do far more and far worse. 

From Nature:
"In selecting Ryan as his running mate, Romney has shifted his campaign towards those in his party who support limiting the government’s reach. For example, even among his Republican colleagues in the House, Ryan stands out in his opposition to environmental regulation. According to the League of Conservation Voters, an environmental-advocacy group based in Washington DC, Ryan was among the 16 of 242 House Republicans who voted against almost all of the environmental actions that the league considered priorities in 2011. In addition to opposing funding for the listing of plants and animals under the Endangered Species Act and Obama’s push for the development of alternative-energy technologies, Ryan, through his budget plan, takes aim at the Environmental Protection Agency for its measures to regulate carbon emissions." 

Plus Ryan's budget would cut science funding across the board, especially basic research, that kind of speculative research that might lead to major breakthroughs. Private sector R&D is too conservative with the company's bucks."