Thanks for the link, Andy.

Having listened to it, I can now comment somewhat intelligently, especially since I see that your selection wasn't inherently misleading.

He was talking about the cap and trade system that he plans to impose, which would (as he said) increase the cost of producing energy through burning fossil fuels. It would not affect ALL electricity production. It would not affect hydroelectric power, nuclear power, or any of the forms of green energy that he wants to promote, because none of those emit greenhouse gases. But if the power is produced by burning natural gas (somewhat), oil (somewhat more), or coal (a lot), the cost would go up because the utility would have to pay for the right to emit the greenhouse gases these fuels produce.

Clueless? On the contrary, he's the only candidate that seems to understand that a measure like this is NECESSARY. We don't have a choice about this: we HAVE to move away from dependence on fossil fuels. Now, what's the best way to do that? Use the power of government to set the parameters and ground rules and then let the market drive the change, as Obama wants to do? Or simply lay down the law and ban burning of fossil fuels? Those are the choices. Continuing business as usual is not a viable choice.

What's interesting as well is that he gave this speech before he was nominated, when the contest was between him and Hillary Clinton. So it's really impossible to argue, as some have done, that he's some sort of stealth candidate, hiding his real positions.

You've given me yet another reason to be very impressed with this man. I've also come to see that I don't even disagree with him on the issue of so-called "clean coal," now that I understand better where he's coming from. He's properly skeptical that greenhouse-free coal is possible, but doesn't want to rule it out by fiat just in case he should turn out to be wrong. That exactly mirrors my own belief.

Barack Obama is exactly the leader we need in these extremely difficult times, which are more challenging than most people realize, and his existence, the fact that we can still produce someone like this, demonstrates that the Gods have not ceased to smile upon America.