Obama pioneers a bold tactic in negotiations: when the adversary's argument blows up, concede

So, on the heels of a dramatic exposure of the scientfic fraud that has fueled the global warming hoax, hoax-master Al Gore salutes President Obama for pioneering a new American stance on the issue.

How did Obama do that? By announcing that he would be in Copenhagen on Dec. 9 to offer U.S. concessions. The U.S. will curb carbon emissions by 17 % from 2006 levels by 2020.

This will be the first time the U.S. has offered such concessions, which would raise the cost of doing business in the U.S., make U.S. manufacturers less competitive in international markets,  and blaze a new trail in the annals of negotiation tactics. The new rule will read as follows: "As soon as your opponent's argument has been blown up beyond retrieval, concede to his demands."

Never mind that no other nation will follow the lead of the U.S. We will have won a place in the hearts of our nonfriends and enemies, and that's what counts. After all, the obvious goal of President Obama is to downsize America's role and standing in the world. Hobbling American business and the economy will do that.

This demonstrates, once again, that leftist certitudes never die; they just are reworked to fit altered environments. Even when yes becomes no, leftists seldom lose a step.

How can they pull this off?

Practice. Practice. Practice.

The godfather of modern leftist collectivism, in all its forms, is Karl Marx, a German intellectual who moved to England early in the industrial revolution. In 1848, he authored the Communist Manifesto, which explored in detail the miserable conditions of England's workers and theorized that the abused workers would eventually rise up and take control of the factories.

From this base, they would capture control of the government as well.

Over ths ensuing 161 years, this never happened anywhere in the world.

In semi-feudal Russia, in 1917, anti-czarists murdered Czar Nicholas II and his family, creating a power vacuum that was filled by expatriate intellectual Vladimir Lenin and motley associates who eventually set up a communist regime.

In China, Communists won a civil war.

Eastern Europe fell into the communist sphere through occupation by Russia.

In Cuba, Fidel Castro and his ragtag communist army overthrew the hated Batista regime.

in Korea, the United Nations fenced off the north, a Chinese sphere of influence, to enable journalists to deploy the phrase "lunatic leader" as often as they liked.

Nowhere did the workers rise up and seize control of a country, as Marx had envisaged.

To top it off, British historian Paul Johnson made an amazing discovery. Having carved out a niche through his exposure of the lies, distortions and depravities of famous intellectuals, Johnson searched for evidence that Marx had ever set foot in a factory.

He found none. So, Marx has his chapter in Johnson's book, "Intellectuals," along with Percy Shelley, Henrik Ibsen, Leon Tolstoy, Ernest Hemingway, Bertolt Brecht, Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre and Edmund Wilson.

Although Marxist theory failed utterly in the real world, it captured huge swaths in the worlds of theory and theology.

Few, if any, university departments of economics, political science and history have escaped Marxist inluence. In some English departments, literature now plays second fiddle to leftist politics. Whole new departments, featuring courses like postmodern studies, ethnic studies and women's studies have sprung up since the 1950s. David Horowitz has come up with a useful rule of thumb: any course name with the word "studies" in it should be regarded with suspicion.

Most, if not all, of those courses shared a purpose, which was to train students to think of themselves as victims.

Not surprisingly, university professors have been among the leading table pounders for global warming.

Now, they have a dilemma. Alarmists have claimed for many years that manmade global warming was going on now. It wasn't, and isn't. The hysteria was based on faudulent science. It's time to back down.

In the real world, marxists can keep right on dreaming of the belated revolution of the workers. Marx didn't put a time limit on his theory.

Gore, who won his Nobel in 2007 for his excellent propaganda on climate change, said that Obama "took an important step" by announcing he would attend the Copenhagen talks on a new climate treaty. Why they need a new treaty is puzzling because hardly anyone paid any attention to the old one, which lies there in pristine condition.

Gore's words may signify a downshift in Democrat expectations. It used to be that Democrats celebrated when they passed a bill growing government and spending more money. Now, Gore is declaring victory on grounds Obama is taking another trip.

Bear in mind that Obama's concession, like Marx's prediction, is on the come.