Obama Leads Romney 52-45 In New Reason-Rupe Poll

Yeah, Obama's pulling out his margin, and this is at the Reason poll, which has a great track record and can hardly be slammed as hopelessly left-wing and in the tank for Obama.

I don't see an Emily Ekins video posted yet, but I'll update with that hottie when it's available.

See, "Obama Leads Romney 52-45 In New Reason-Rupe Poll; In Three-Way Race Obama Leads Romney 49-42, Johnson Gets 6 Percent":

A new national Reason-Rupe poll of likely voters finds President Barack Obama leading Republican Mitt Romney 48 percent to 43 percent in the presidential race. When undecided voters are asked which way they are leaning Obama’s lead over Romney grows to 52-45.

President Obama holds large advantages among women (53-37), African-Americans (92-2) and Hispanics (71-18). Fifty-two percent of likely voters view Obama favorably, while 45 view him unfavorably. In contrast, 49 percent of likely voters have an unfavorable view of Mitt Romney and 41 percent have a favorable view of him.

In a three-way presidential race, Obama drops to 49 percent among likely voters and Romney falls to 42 percent as the Libertarian Party’s Gary Johnson gets six percent of support. Johnson is already on the presidential ballot in 47 states.

More at the link.

Check back if you're not looking for sugarcoating.

David Horowitz on Libya Attack: 'One of the Most Disgraceful Moments in the History of the American Presidency...'

I caught this clip yesterday at Bare Naked Islam, "David Horowitz, author & editor of Frontpage Magazine, in explosive FOX News interview."

And now it's picked up at Nice Deb, "David Horowitz: Arrest of Anti-Islam FilmMaker “One of the Most Disgraceful Moments in the History of the American Presidency” (Video)":

An appalled David Horowitz, appearing on America Live with Megyn Kelly, passionately defended freedom of speech, Thursday, calling the arrest of the anti Islam movie maker, one of the “most disgraceful moments in the history of the American Presidency”, adding “if you don’t have the right of expressing your opinion, however hateful it may be, you don’t have any rights! Americans cannot defend all the other rights they have, if they don’t have free speech!”

RTWT.

BONUS: Robert Stacy McCain takes the occasion to provide a bio-background on Horowitz's ideological transformation, "VIDEO: David Horowitz Slams Obama’s Attack on Islam Film, First Amendment."

Horowitz's new book is here, "Radicals: Portraits of a Destructive Passion."

Mitt Romney's Path to Victory is Narrowing

At the clip is last night's "Hard Ball with Chris Matthews." If you're a progressive, it's the best of times. The "47 percent" line is a perpetual final nail in the coffin, and the leftists just keep hammering it in with every mention of the "SECRET VIDEO." Tacked on at the end is a discussion of that Fox News battleground states poll I flagged on Wednesday. Chris Matthews is positively giddy at the numbers, and while I don't recall watching Alex Wagner, she's completely writing off Romney's chances. John Heilemann from New York Magazine, who I respect, also comments, highlighting especially the defections by top Republicans from the Romney/Ryan camp.

Meanwhile, here's the latest from the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist battleground states poll, "Headwinds for Romney in Latest Poll Results"  (at Memeorandum):

Mitt Romney's path to victory is narrowing, new polling data suggest, presenting challenges for the Republican nominee at a moment when he is trying to rebound from a week of bad headlines by refocusing on federal spending.

President Barack Obama has opened an eight percentage-point lead in Iowa and maintains a five-point edge in Colorado and Wisconsin, according to Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist Poll surveys of the three presidential battlegrounds released Thursday.

The new poll results are significant in part because the Romney campaign views the three states as steppingstones to an Electoral College majority, given Mr. Romney's slippage in polls of two of the largest battlegrounds, Ohio and Virginia.

The margin of error in the polls for likely voters was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points in Colorado, 3.2 points in Wisconsin and 3.3 points in Iowa.

The new Journal surveys were taken just as video surfaced earlier this week of Mr. Romney telling donors that nearly half the country "sees themselves as victims" and is dependent on government.

Coming amid other poll data, the new results show Mr. Romney with ground to make up in a large number of states amid a shrinking pool of undecided voters. One measure of the hurdle he faces: Even if Mr. Romney were awarded all the states in which the president leads by less than three percentage points in aggregated poll results—states such as Colorado, Florida and Iowa—Mr. Obama would still win re-election based on his leads in Ohio, Virginia and smaller swing states.

The results come as public opinion is on the verge of turning into votes cast at the ballot box. So far, on-the-ground data from two early voting states, Iowa and North Carolina, are mixed for the two candidates. In North Carolina, Republicans have requested nearly 7,000 more absentee ballots than Democrats, out of nearly 50,000 requests, according to state officials.

But in Iowa, Democrats have requested roughly 100,000 ballots, compared with 16,073 ballots requested by Republicans.

"I see the early vote numbers, and I grimace a little bit," said Craig Robinson, a former political director of the Iowa Republican Party and editor of a popular blog, The Iowa Republican. "It feels like an Obama state….The president has been more accessible to voters than Romney and Ryan."

The Romney camp dismisses most of the recent polling as a "sugar high" for Mr. Obama left over from the party conventions. "Polls are going to go this way and that way," Mr. Romney's running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, told donors during a fundraiser Thursday night in Washington. "But at the end of the day, if we do our jobs right, and we will, the country will have a really clear choice."

Among other factors, Romney supporters point to polling that shows Republicans hold a modest edge in voter enthusiasm and data that shows a large percentage of Americans still think the country is moving in the wrong direction. "We feel like we're in a very close contest," said Ed Gillespie, a senior adviser to the Romney campaign. "We feel like Romney is likely to win."

In all three of the new Journal surveys, Mr. Obama had backing from at least 50% of likely voters, suggesting that Mr. Romney will have to strip supporters from the president to win. In Iowa, Mr. Obama held 50% of the vote to 42% for Mr. Romney. Mr. Obama led his GOP rival 50% to 45% in Colorado and Wisconsin.

Not that much of a silver lining there, eh?

The line for conservatives has to be that the MSM polls are biased in favor of the Democrats and that Republican enthusiasm will translate into massive turnout for Romney on November 6. Another way to put it is that correcting for polling bias, and of course the boost for Obama from the Democrat-Media-Complex, the race is still basically a dead heat. If so, the October debates take on outsized significance. These are the chance for Romney to grab Obama by the throat and kick the African Marxist interloper to the curb. Screw timidity. This is the time to go bold and encapsulate four years of tea party, conservative grassroots frustration with all the left's lies, corruption, and political violence. Will that help? Who knows? But at least Romney can say he threw everything at the f-ker and have no regrets when it's all over.

We'll see.

Now, checking around the horn, I should give another shout out Nate Silver, who I dissed a week or so back but who now might be getting on the right side of the data. See, "Sept. 20: Obama’s Convention Bounce May Not Be Receding."

And don't be confused by Allahpundit's headline at Hot Air. He's got a roundup of the polls and he's just scratching his head, "Gallup tracker: Romney now even with Obama at 47." (Via Memeorandum.)

I'll have more. But remember, no sugarcoating.

Equality or Independence? America's Choice This November

From Robert Stacy McCain, at the American Spectator, "All joking aside, America faces a serious choice this November":

In 1776, contrary to what children are taught in school nowadays, our nation's Founding Fathers did not sign the "Declaration of Equality." No, the document to which John Hancock and the others signed their names in Philadelphia -- the vow to which they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor -- was the Declaration of Independence. There is a world of difference between the two concepts. While I do not claim to be the equal of such eminent Harvard alumni as Kristol, Yglesias, and Obama (J.D., magna cum laude, 1991), I stubbornly refuse to surrender my independence. And I'm damned well sick and tired of hearing all these smart people on TV proclaiming that folks like me are too stupid to understand what Mitt Romney was saying in that "secret" video.

By God, Romney was right and if anyone is insulted by the plain truth, they deserve to be insulted. Ross Kaminsky is also right: The "secret" video could be just what the Romney campaign needed to spark a serious conversation about Obama's economic failure. Our national debt is now $16 trillion, the annual budget deficit has exceeded $1 trillion for each of the past four years, and 47 percent of us aren't contributing a nickel to fix that problem. A big part of the problem -- and maybe you've noticed this -- is that the economy sucks. Even if you didn't make the mistake of pursuing a journalism career, it's kind of hard to work your way up when the unemployment rate is over 8 percent, a statistic that actually understates the problem. As James Pethokoukis has explained, the broader unemployment rate, including part-time workers who want full-time jobs, is 14.6 percent, and the rate would be even higher if not for a declining rate of "workforce participation." Among the factors in this decline is the extension of unemployment payments to 99 weeks, as well as a troubling rise in the number of working-age adults claiming disability. An additional 1.7 million are now receiving Social Security disability payments, a 23 percent increase since 2007. More and more people are being paid not to work, which reduces the number of taxpayers, and the government is borrowing more money to make more payments to more people, including the increasing number (47 million) on food stamps.

This is no laughing matter...

That's less bucking up the troops than bitch slapping the progressives, but either way, Robert's an excellent writer.

RTWT at the link.

Scott Brown Hammers Elizabeth Warren on Native American Claims

At Legal Insurrection, "Warren-Brown Post-Debate Analysis":

In hindsight, focusing on releasing records was brilliant, because Warren has a major problem, she likely made or participated in causing Harvard to make false federal filings as to her Native American status using standard Harvard and EEOC definitions.

Lots more at the link.

And FWIW, at the Boston Globe, "In crucial first debate, Scott Brown challenges Warren’s Native American heritage claim."

Obama Administration Hid Existence of 'Secret Safe House' Even After Ambassador Christopher Stevens Was Killed

Guy Benson rightly calls this devastating, at Townhall, "Whoa: Devastating CBS News Benghazi Report Slams Obama Administration."

Plus, at the Wall Street Journal, "Miscues Before Libya Assault: Limited Security in Benghazi, Secrecy Over Safe House, Contributed to Tragedy":

The deadly assault on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya on Sept. 11 was preceded by a succession of security lapses and misjudgments, compounded by fog-of-battle decisions, that raise questions about whether the scope of the tragedy could have been contained.

U.S. officials issued alerts and ordered security precautions in neighboring Egypt ahead of protests and violence on Sept. 11, but largely overlooked the possibility of trouble at other diplomatic postings in the region.

The State Department chose to maintain only limited security in Benghazi, Libya, despite months of sporadic attacks there on U.S. and other Western missions. And while the U.S. said it would ask Libya to boost security there, it did so just once, for a one-week period in June, according to Libyan officials.

The U.S. didn't seriously consider sending in the military during the attack. It summoned rapid-response teams of Marines only after the U.S. ambassador was dead. State Department officials said they doubted the Pentagon could have mobilized a rescue force quickly enough to make a difference during the fighting. The Pentagon waited for guidance from State, which is responsible for diplomatic security, a senior military official said.

Adding a new dimension to the chain of events, the siege also engulfed what officials now describe as a secret safe house used by American officials and security personnel involved in sensitive government programs after last year's Libyan revolution.

Even when that building, also known as the "annex," came under attack, U.S. officials were reluctant to divulge its existence, and the secrecy complicated the Libyan response and the eventual American evacuation, according to Libyan security officials.

The Obama administration has defended levels of security in place. Though intelligence officials are investigating indications al Qaeda's North African affiliate had connections with militants who mounted the attack, U.S. officials say the evidence still indicates it was a spontaneous response to protests in Cairo against an anti-Islamic video. But a detailed review based on interviews with more than a dozen U.S. and Libyan officials shows months of ominous signals suggesting the need for better security, along with missed chances for delivering it.

President Barack Obama, in his re-election campaign, gets high marks from voters on national security, but has drawn Republican criticism over his handling of the anti-American protests.

After a classified briefing to lawmakers by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Thursday, Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) called the security "woefully inadequate, given the security-threat environment." The State Department has convened an Accountability Review Board to investigate the attack, something it is required to do after such an incident.

U.S. officials still are struggling to piece together details of the attack. For more than a week after U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed, the State Department couldn't say why he was in Benghazi. On Thursday, officials said they believed he was there to attend the launch of a joint U.S.-Libyan cultural and educational program.

Mr. Stevens and Sean Smith, an information officer, were killed at the consulate, in the first wave of the attack. Former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods died later, at the sensitive safe house or annex a kilometer away. It remains unclear to U.S. and Libyan officials whether the militants knew of that facility or just followed a U.S. convoy to it after the consulate attack.

The apparent lapses extended to firefighting equipment. Rescue attempts at the main building were thwarted in part by the absence of smoke-protection masks and fire extinguishers, said Libyan guards. Senior State Department officials said these wouldn't have provided sufficient protection against the diesel-fueled inferno.

State Department officials said security for the consulate was frequently reviewed and was deemed sufficient to counter what U.S. officials considered to be the most likely threat at the time: a limited hit-and-run attack with rocket-propelled grenades or improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

There was a string of attacks in Benghazi in the months before Sept. 11, including a June 6 IED explosion outside the consulate compound. "These types of incidents were the ones that were our principal concerns," a senior State Department official said. Based on the outcome of the June 6 attack, in which a perimeter wall was damaged but no Americans hurt, a second State Department official added: "Our security plan worked."

Current and former officials said the security choices in Benghazi reflected efforts by Mr. Stevens to maintain a low-profile security posture and show faith in Libya's new leaders, despite questions about their ability to rein in heavily armed bands of militants. Officials say Mr. Stevens personally advised against having Marines posted at the embassy in Tripoli, apparently to avoid a militarized U.S. presence.

The security plan for the consulate also reflected confidence Mr. Stevens felt in a city where he worked for months with rebels battling Moammar Gadhafi's rule. State Department officials said he didn't consult with Washington before traveling to Benghazi, located in an area that has become notorious for its volatile mix of Islamist militancy and heavy weaponry.

"This is what happens when you're relying on a government that's not in control of the whole country," said Randa Fahmy Hudome, a former U.S. official. Benghazi "was awash with weapons in the hands of various brigades who were all in combat with one another. It wasn't a secret."

'Talk about bad timing! Pawlenty to step down as national co-chair of Romney's stuttering campaign to take job at bank lobbying group...'

That was the headline earlier this afternoon at London's Daily Mail, for this piece, "Pawlenty to step down as national co-chair of Romney's presidential campaign to take job at bank lobbying group."

When I saw the news at the office today I didn't make the connection to the Romney campaign (forgetting Pawlenty was a top operative). But I noticed some folks around Memeorandum spewing the "sinking ship" analogy, and the New York Times reports, "Pawlenty Is Leaving Romney Campaign for Lobbying Post." (Also at Memeorandum.)

Check the links.

A man's gotta make a living, but yeah, the timing's not so great.

'Blinded by the Light'

From Tuesday morning's drive time at The Sound L.A.

6:27 - Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd

6:34 - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic by Police

6:38 - In The Beginning/lovely To See You by Moody Blues

6:42 - Going To California by Led Zeppelin

6:53 - Blinded By The Light by Manfred Mann

Interestingly, Bruce Springsteen wrote and originally recorded the song.

I'll Have What She's Having...

She would be Gabriella Hoffman, who's got some youthful optimism that seems lacking around these parts of late:

This president can and will be defeated at the ballot box this November. We are tired of corrupt, Chicago-esque politics. #tcot #truth
— Gabriella Hoffman (@Gabby_Hoffman) September 20, 2012

I'll have more later...

'It's Time to Admit the Romney Campaign is an Incompetent One...'

That's Peggy Noonan at yesterday's Wall Street Journal, "Time for an Intervention":

I think there is a broad and growing feeling now, among Republicans, that this thing is slipping out of Romney’s hands. Today at a speech in New York with what seemed like many conservatives and Republicans in the audience, I said more or less the above. I wondered if anyone would say, in the Q&A, “I think you’ve got it wrong, you’re too pessimistic.” No one did. A woman asked me to talk about why in a year the Republicans couldn’t lose, the Republican candidate seems to be losing.

I said pre-mortems won’t help, if you want to help the more conservative candidate, it’s a better use of your time to pitch in with ideas. There’s seven weeks to go. This isn’t over, it’s possible to make things better.

Republicans are going to have to right this thing. They have to stabilize it.

It’s time to admit the Romney campaign is an incompetent one. It’s not big, it’s not brave, it’s not thoughtfully tackling great issues...

Folks can read it all at that top link.

I published an analysis at yesterday at PJ Media, which echoed some of Noonan's points: "Is Romney Imploding?" It's straightforward analysis, although hard-right partisans will blow it off as "demoralizing" the GOP base, or whatever.

I'm still waiting for that big Romney breakthrough, like waiting all year. And the polls remain where they've been for months, with Obama enjoying slight gains in the key battleground states and in nationwide surveys. It's seven weeks to go. Lots can still happen, as Charlie Cook suggested the other day. But Romney needs something, anything, that's a game changer. I hope I'm wrong and they'll be a surge of grassroots mobilization and turnout, or something. But at this point some polls are even finding that the enthusiasm gap has basically closed.

I'll have more on this, but I'm not going to be sugarcoating things.

PREVIOUSLY: "Fox News Battleground States Poll: Obama Up in Florida, Ohio and Virginia."

Pew Research Center Poll: Obama Up by Eight in New Nationwide Survey

Pew's one of the better polling organizations. Very reputable.

Read it all at the link.

See: "Obama Ahead with Stronger Support, Better Image and Lead on Most Issues — Democrats Narrow Engagement Gap." (And the progs are creaming at Memeorandum.)

Also, from Ed Kilgore, at the Washington Monthly, "Really Bad News For Mitt From Pew."

Actually, it's been bad news for a while now, but who's keeping track, in any case?

Lukasz Wisniewski Wheelie

This is wicked:

The police claimed this guy was endangering his own life and the lives of others. He's going fast, no doubt. But the dude's got those wheelies down cold.

See: "Motorcyclist caught on police camera pulling a WHEELIE as he speeds at 103mph."

Tax the Profiteers!

At Althouse, "'Peace/Tax the Profiteers!/Free Press/Free Speech'":

A poster for Victor L. Berger, on display at the Wisconsin Historical Museum. Berger ran on the Socialist ticket.

Berger was a founder of the Socialist Party of America in 1901....

Interesting how Berger, the first Socialist Party candidate elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, pushed a platform basically identical to the Democrat attacks we're seeing on Mitt Romney in 2012.

PHOTO: From Althouse's Flickr page.

Former Guantanamo Terrorist, Released in 2007, Implicated in Libya Attack on U.S. Consulate

The administration lied about this for a week. What a joke, seriously.

At the Weekly Standard, "Ex-Gitmo Detainee Implicated in Consulate Attack."

Also at Weasel Zippers, "Report: Jihadist Who Led Benghazi Attack Was a Former Gitmo Detainee, Released By U.S. In 2007…"

Alessandra Ambrosio and Lais Ribeiro for Fabulous by Victoria's Secret

I've got a thing for Alessandra. What a sweetie.

We'll be having that Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in no time.

Sean Hannity Radio Interview with Mark Levin

It's good.

Listen at the link: "Sean Hannity Radio show interviews Mark Levin on the upcoming election."

Barack Obama on David Letterman Show

It's all bullshit, naturally. In the 2008 primaries O slammed Americans who cling to their guns and religion, which was captured on a secret camera (although not played to the hilt like Romney's 47 percent "SECRET VIDEO"):

More, at PJ Media, "Lying on Letterman: Obama Claims He Hasn’t Questioned Anyone’s Patriotism."

And Instapundit, "BUSTED: Obama Lies To Letterman, Says He Never Called Opponents Unpatriotic. Let’s go to the video..."

The video's at the link.

Fox News Battleground States Poll: Obama Up in Florida, Ohio and Virginia

It's Fox News, so will cocooning conservatives beset by epistemic closure blow this poll off as a desperately biased survey of the Obama-enabling MSM?  I wouldn't be surprised. And me? I'm tired of trying to parse the bright spots in all these recent polls showing Romney getting hammered.

From Dana Blanton, "Obama has edge over Romney in three battleground states" (via Memeorandum):

President Barack Obama has the edge over Republican Mitt Romney in three potentially decisive states in the presidential election.

Obama tops Romney by seven percentage points among likely voters in both Ohio (49-42 percent) and Virginia (50-43 percent). In Florida, the president holds a five-point edge (49-44 percent).

Obama’s lead is just outside the poll’s margin of sampling error in Ohio and Virginia, and within the margin of sampling error in Florida.

The good news for Romney is that among voters who are “extremely” interested in this year’s election, the races are much tighter. Obama is up by just two points with this group in Virginia (49-47 percent), Florida is tied (48-48 percent), and Romney is up by one point in Ohio (48-47 percent).

Independents are nearly evenly divided in each of the states, as well.

Majorities of voters are unhappy with how things are going in the country, yet in all three states more say they trust Obama than Romney to improve the economy. Likewise, in each state more voters believe the Obama administration’s policies have helped rather than hurt the economy -- albeit by slim margins: By two points in Florida, three points in Ohio and five points in Virginia.

Continue reading.

Okay, sounds like there's some bright spots in there, right? Well as I'm posting this entry CBS News is reporting the results from its new poll also showing Obama up in Virginia. See, "Wisconsin Offers Window on Hurdles Ahead for Romney":

RACINE, Wis. — To Mitt Romney, the 10 electoral votes in Wisconsin may be more essential than extra, a critical backup plan if a first-tier battleground state falls out of reach.

Seven weeks until the election, with Mr. Romney facing new questions about his ability to gain trust among voters experiencing economic hardships, his campaign is increasingly pointing to Wisconsin as a place where a statewide Republican resurgence could rub off on Mr. Romney.

But President Obama has overtaken Mr. Romney on who would do a better job handling the economy, according to a new Quinnipiac University/New York Times/CBS News poll of likely Wisconsin voters. The poll also found that Mr. Obama has a 17-point edge over Mr. Romney when voters are asked if a candidate cares about their needs and problems.

As the president makes his first campaign visit of the year to Wisconsin on Saturday, the poll found that Mr. Obama was the choice of 51 percent to 45 percent for Mr. Romney among likely voters. The six-point lead, which includes those who said they were leaning in one direction or another, marks a slight shift in Mr. Obama’s direction since Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin joined the Republican ticket last month.

The findings of the poll, along with the fallout from newly exposed remarks Mr. Romney made at a fund-raiser in which he bluntly suggested that 47 percent of Americans saw themselves as victims who are dependent on the government, offer a window into the challenges confronting his campaign here and other important swing states during the final 48 days of the race.

Rob Jankowski, an independent voter who supported Mr. Obama four years ago but has been disappointed by his economic leadership and disapproves of his health care plan, is among the 3 percent of voters in the survey who say they are still undecided. He said he did not feel loyalty to Mr. Obama simply because he supported him last time, but he said Mr. Romney had not made his case.

“Obama is putting out his plans and his details and being more public on that, but with Romney it’s kind of gray,” said Mr. Jankowski, 39, speaking in a follow-up interview Tuesday afternoon here in Jefferson Park, as a cool breeze rustled the tree leaves. “I’d like to know more — educate me.”

The New York Times, in collaboration with Quinnipiac and CBS News, is tracking the presidential race with recurring polls in six states. The latest collection of surveys also included Colorado, where Mr. Romney is running nearly even with Mr. Obama, and Virginia, where Mr. Obama has a narrow advantage of four percentage points, both of which are inside the survey’s margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for each candidate.

But for Mr. Romney, Wisconsin offers one of the best chances to fight on Mr. Obama’s terrain in the Midwest and expand the battleground map. The Romney campaign has redirected some of its money and manpower once intended for Michigan and Pennsylvania to Wisconsin, hoping to create as many paths as possible to reaching the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.

I've highlighted that part on Virginia.

We'll see, but time's running short.

If it's any consolation, Rasmussen has Romney up 47/46 in its nationwide tracking poll today. So, who knows? Maybe even Fox News polls are in the tank for Obama?

One-Year Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street

The anarcho-communist assholes:

PREVIOUSLY: "The Lamest Thing You'll Read All Day."

Added: From Glenn Reynolds, "OCCUPY WALL STREET: Pushing Up Daisies, Not Pining For The Fjords."

As Arctic Ice Melts, Nations Scramble for Natural Resources Bounty

I doubt this is the kind of response that radical environmentalists were expecting with the melting of the polar ice caps.

At the New York Times, "Race Is On as Ice Melt Reveals Arctic Treasures":

NUUK, Greenland — With Arctic ice melting at record pace, the world’s superpowers are increasingly jockeying for political influence and economic position in outposts like this one, previously regarded as barren wastelands.


At stake are the Arctic’s abundant supplies of oil, gas and minerals that are, thanks to climate change, becoming newly accessible along with increasingly navigable polar shipping shortcuts. This year, China has become a far more aggressive player in this frigid field, experts say, provoking alarm among Western powers.

While the United States, Russia and several nations of the European Union have Arctic territory, China has none, and as a result, has been deploying its wealth and diplomatic clout to secure toeholds in the region.

“The Arctic has risen rapidly on China’s foreign policy agenda in the past two years,” said Linda Jakobson, East Asia program director at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney, Australia. So, she said, the Chinese are exploring “how they could get involved.”

In August, China sent its first ship across the Arctic to Europe and it is lobbying intensely for permanent observer status on the Arctic Council, the loose international body of eight Arctic nations that develops policy for the region, arguing that it is a “near Arctic state” and proclaiming that the Arctic is “the inherited wealth of all humankind,” in the words of China’s State Oceanic Administration.

More at that top link.

Amazing that it's China pushing most aggressively for Arctic development. Beijing's not too concerned about pollution, in any case, but it's interesting how this places enormous pressures on other countries not to fall too far behind in exploiting these treasures.

There's an Antarctic Treaty dating back to 1961 that regulate international relation on that continent, with codicils for the environment added in 1981. Keep your eyes peeled for an increasing multilateral push for a companion treaty arrangement for the North Pole. See, "As the Far North Melts, Calls Grow for Arctic Treaty."