From The Nation
By John Nichols

Yikes, it’s really true. John McCain is running for president as a tree-hugging liberal.

No, not an all-the-time environmentalist — rather, as a swing-state-savvy, targeted-message-peddling, hoping-to-pick-up-the-votes-of-lifestyle-liberals-who-want-to-address-climate-change-on-the-cheap murky-shade-of-green Republican.

So, today, in the battleground state of Oregon, where a reverence for the outdoors requires that Republican contenders greenwash their appeals, McCain’s campaign will begin airing a new television commercial that essentially says: “Look, I’m not like George Bush and Dick Cheney. I don’t live in la-la land when it comes to global warming. I actually believe in something I like to call ’science.’”

The senator — who broke a little bit with Bush and Cheney on environmental issues, but who never really lined up with the serious Republican environmentalists who were isolated by the administration and burn-the-planet GOP leaders like Tom DeLay — is reinforcing the message with a major campaign swing through the northwest, where he hopes to put the sometimes swinging states of Oregon and Washington in play by presenting himself as John McCain: Eco-Warrior.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee swept into Portlandon Monday to deliver a major address outlining his plan to “re-establish America’s environmental leadership in the world.” Here’s a hint about how he’ll do it: The McCain campaign says the candidates wants to “mobilize market forces.”

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