Another Dead Canary

For me, the crystal-clear difference between Barack Obama and John McCain came down to one moment in Tuesday night’s debate — when Tom Brokaw asked the candidates to rank their priorities between health care, energy and reform of the social security and medicare systems.

McCain played it down the middle, saying all three issues were equally important and that he could work on all three at the same time. It was a safe, if meaningless, answer. Or rather, it was a non answer since the question was to rank priorities, not eliminate them.

Obama didn’t hesitate. He named energy his number one priority.

I think it said a lot about each man’s vision for the country and their leadership abilities. Obama realizes that if we don’t put a forward-looking energy strategy in place — one that emphasizes renewable energy and efficiency, while fostering new technologies — none of these other issues may matter. That’s how critical and all-encompassing energy is to our future.

Kudos to Obama for showing some political courage.

Ben Whitford @ Plenty says Obama’s message hit home:

In response, Obama blasted McCain’s lack of vision, criticizing his repeated votes against alternative fuels and driving home the point – which can’t be made often enough – that America simply doesn’t have the oil reserves to drill her way out of the current energy crisis. Instead, Obama promised a transformative JFK-style moon-shot, saying he’d make energy his administration’s top priority and pour resources into a broad-based energy platform encompassing everything from oil and nuclear to solar, wind, geothermal and energy efficiency.

Carl Pope @ The Sierra Club was also excited about Obama’s focus on a green economy:

For me, the most exciting moment in last night’s Presidential debate was when Obama showed that he gets this. When asked in what order he would undertake his major reforms, he put clean energy as priority #1. This is huge. It means that a green economy will be the driver of America’s economic recovery if Obama wins — and the focus group and polling results from last night suggest that the voters embrace this vision.

Jake Berliner @ NDN saw the Obama’s answer to the question as a historical moment:

This debate had a tremendous amount of discussion on energy, which, Americans have realized, is at the center of almost every major issue of the day, from getting the country out of a recession to limiting the power of an emboldened Russia. The fact that Obama has made it clear that energy is his first priority is an extremely welcome sign, and the strong focus on energy policy last night is a watershed moment in Presidential politics.