Hot Air

President Obama's attempt to change the trajectory of America continues - albeit limpidly - with his intention to support the talks in Copenhagen to set guidelines for reducing the fossil fuel emissions that produce global warming. Obama will reportedly commit the United States to 17 percent reduction in emissions by the end of the coming decade. His 2020 vision (pun intended), however, will be contingent on cooperation from China, now emitting more greenhouse gases than the U.S.

President Obama is likelier to gain Chinese cooperation than any help from Congress, where passage of a Senate bill to cut emissions sponsored by Democratic senators John Kerry (MA) and Barbara Boxer (CA) is in doubt despite bipartisan support from Republicans such as Arizona's John McCain and South Carolina's Lindsey Graham. Obama has also been mildly criticized for planning to go early to the meeting rather than later, when negotiations will become more intense, but it sure does beat what Bush would have done . . . nothing.

Obama is stopping in Copenhagen on his way to Stockholm to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. Meanwhile, he's planing to expand the war in Afghanistan.