After the news portion of a "Warmer Weather Hurting Retail" segment on the impact of the mild winter on retail sales thus far appearing early this morning on CNBC, Joe Kernen and John Harwood got into it over the relevance and influence of so-called "global warming" (I guess Harwood didn't get the memo that it's "climate change" now).
Picking up at the 2:10 mark of the video:
Courtney Reagan: Now while the temperatures have begun to drop in many areas of the country, it could be too late for seasonal apparel sales. It's going to be hard to sell gloves in February when we're already past most of winter.
John Harwood: This global warming is a killer.
Courtney Reagan: I knew you were going to say that and I wasn't going to go there!
Joe Kernen: You say that (women panel members, especially Michelle Caruso Cabrera, give it the "oh no, here we go" treatment), but no no no, wait a minute, John. (We have) the same, the same carbon concentration last year as this year. Last year we were just talking about the record frigid temperatures. How do you have the variability from last year and this year based on the same carbon? Why wasn't it warm last year like this year because we had the same carbon concentration?
John Harwood (in a kidding tone): You don't have any empathy for retailers, do you?
(after crosstalk)
Kernen: But the great thing for the climate change people is that they attributed the snow last year also to global warming. So you have a frigid, freezing winter with lots of snow -- global warming. You have a warm … (inaudible) … Doesn't that tell you something?
The conversation then went to the continued popularity of Uggs.
In a subsequent segment on the Italian debt situation, a guest humorously referred back to the global warming discussion, saying that "things are going to melt down there a lot sooner than they do everywhere else."
Nice job by Kernen in asking the logical questions which really can't be answered by the warmist crowd.
Separately in a later interview, Harwood gave away his leftist lean when he took the position that a Mitt Romney win in Iowa's caucuses might turn the Republican race for the presidential nomination into a short-term rout for the former Massachusetts governor, who has been the fave of the establishment press all year. On what planet, John? Not the one which has South Carolina in it.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
