“Arizona Sen. John McCain broke with the Bush administration and Republican Party orthodoxy Monday as he not only declared global warming real, but reached out to Democrats and independents with a free-market solution that includes capping carbon-fuel emissions. The GOP presidential contender also prodded China and India, two major emitters of the greenhouse gases blamed for the planet’s warming, to join the effort, although he muted planned talk of tariffs against them in favor of ‘effective diplomacy’ to encourage their compliance. An aide later said that McCain didn’t want to be interpreted as being ‘at odds with his commitment to open trade.’ [editor’s note: Let’s hope the “true conservatives” are willing to hold Old John’s feet to the fire on this claim, even though neither has the foggiest idea what “free trade” actually means - SAT] (05/13/08)