On the PNG trump of US in UN climate change talk...

Sometimes, things are not quite what it seems. Such is the nature of politics. The Brits play it like hand-and-glove. There has always been this belief (and there's truth in it), that Americans have a long way to go. Americans are more a straight-shooter.

So we see how this plays out in the UN Climate Talk in Bali, where the Papua New Guinea rep Kevin Conrad delivered the famous lines to US, to tell US to either lead or just move out of the way, amidst sea of applause. That was delivered to US, when US made rejections to certain items at last minute, angering a large number of delegates. After the famous lines, US made a 180-degree turnaround, and agreed to change its position, thereby securing the resolution.

The reality was not quite as simple as the climate talk turned out. In interview after the talk, Conrad indicated that US was effectively labeled as the fall guy, since there are items in the talk on the issues that were known to trigger US objections. With objections from US, everything
would collapse. And a collapse would mean inaction by all countries, which would set us back years in fighting climate change.

Perhaps US doesn't mind people hating them, much as Bush does in the eyes of the rest of the world. But for the US to allow itself to be labeled as such, it's quite incomprehensible. The turnaround, in a matter of minutes, in front of cameras and the whole world, simply demonstrates how poorly US is, in the name of the political game. One would never expect, and would never get, such a performance from the British. Americans really need to take some Politico 101 with the Brit, in order to better handle and present themself.