A secret White House strategy memo on how to spin reporters and activists in the run-up to talks in Mexico later this year reveals that climate officials were coordinating public relations efforts last fall with the Center for American Progress.
But apparently the White House realized that CAP's help wasn't good enough, since now the memo says that "intimate meetings" between administration staff with "some of the harsher critics" are needed:
Larger group sessions, similar to the one held at CAP prior to Copenhagen, will be useful down the line, but more intimate meetings in the spring are essential to building the foundation of support. Or at the very least, disarming some of the harsher critics.
In their final post on the Climate McCarthyism last fall, Ted and Michael referred to CAP as "the headquarters in Washington," and worried that CAP's influence over the White House would cause Obama to follow in the footsteps of Australian PM, Kevin Rudd, in labeling green critics of cap and trade "global warming deniers." Let's hope that influence is now waning in light of the rapidly failing push for cap and trade in the U.S. and a global climate agreement from the U.N.
