In last night’s debate Senator Barbara Boxer made clear what was at stake in November’s U.S. Senate election: California’s clean energy future. Without a doubt, re-electing Barbara Boxer will help keep the dream alive, but electing Carly Fiorina would be a nightmare.In fact, when asked about her stance on Prop 23, the Dirty Energy Initiative funded by Texas oil companies to suspend California’s landmark global warming law AB 32, Fiorina danced around the question. But her spin failed. After a long-winded meaningless answer, the moderators pushed her give a direct yes or no answer on supporting the Dirty Energy Initiative. You’ll be surprised to learn she still didn’t answer the question. This strongly contrasted with Senator Boxer who has long been openly campaigning against Prop 23 and a stalwart supporter of AB 32:
Shortly after, Fiorina was grilled on her views of AB 32, California’s major climate change bill, and whether she backs Prop. 23, a November ballot measure that would suspend the law. After Fiorina dodged the question, Shandobil said, “Yes or no? Just answer, do you support it?” “I have not taken a position on it yet,” Fiorina responded, adding that “there’s no question in my mind … that AB 32 is at the very least, in the short term, a job killer.” Boxer retorted: “Well, if you can’t take a stand on Prop. 23, I don’t know what you will take a stand on.”
By the way, one of the worst things that can happen to you in a debate is to be caught trying to avoid a question by the moderator. Why? Because you’re just drawing negative attention to yourself and feeding the press their story the next day like in the SacBee, the San Jose Mercury News, and the LA Times. I could go on, but the list is so long that Carly might actually accept global warming before I’m done reading it off. You can watch the exchange about AB 32, Prop 23, and green jobs below:
It’s a great clip, but you can’t get enough information about what separates two candidates from a short sound bite. So to help you, take a look at this chart comparing the difference between Boxer and Fiorina on a number of environmental issues. Without a doubt, the choice is black and white… or brown and green, depending on your point of view.
