Coal in Your Stocking

Give Barack Obama credit for one thing. When it comes to global warming and coal, he exhibited extraordinary candor about the economic pain his proposals would cause. Unfortunately for John McCain’s prospects, Obama’s candor was kept hidden for the better part of the year. It wasn’t until late Sunday evening that word surfaced of Obama’s extremely impolitic comments to the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board last January. Had they been well known before the last, dying gasps of a seemingly interminable campaign, the McCain team might have been able to gain real traction in key battleground states like Pennsylvania and Ohio. Lucky for Obama, the Chronicle editors inexplicably failed to publicize Obama’s revelations.