No this isn't a rhetorical question, I truly wonder why.
I'll start with my source. Pew
![](http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/4130/pewx.png)
Keystone was a very big environmental issue over the winter and if anything I'd say it has been a delayed loss. Delayed until after the election that is. Yesterday on NPR I heard something to the effect that the Obama admin has never come down firmly against the pipeline.
When I saw the numbers up above I was fairly surprised. Ok, the sample size is kind of small when you get down to things like liberal Dems, but I'd bet it's not far off. Three out of eight liberal Dems think it should be approved? Five out of eight Dems overall, and amongst the general public the sentiment to allow the building of the pipeline is very strong 66/23, somehow the case hasn't been made to the general public.
Keystone is or was, an issue I have to admit I haven't been following very closely. I do consider global warming to be THE number one environmental issue, the issue so large and encompassing that it nudges most others to the sidelines of importance. But, and it's a big but, I didn't like the rhetoric. That same "if this passes we're all gona die and it's all gona be your fault" kind of thing I hear about eating meat, or protecting predators, there's only so much of me that can believe the entire world is coming to an end by close of business yesterday.
What's up with the environmental movement?
I'd think if you took a poll similar to the one by Pew but asked questions like are you for or against air pollution, are you for or against clean water, are you for or against lead in our water supply, are you for or against just about every form of pollution or environmental degradation you'd get near unanimous support.
You know another thing that reaches out and grabs me, of all the groups liberal Dems have the highest number of undecideds, it's the DK column. Somehow if push came to shove I don't think they'd be on the side of the angels.
I'm left with a lot more questions than answers. Is Keystone really not that bad? Was the issue presented wrongly to the public? Did big oil outspend and out advertise? Most importantly is the environmental movement failing to connect to the American public the way it did thirty years ago?