Gingrich Loses Debate Before It Even Starts

Newt Gingrich has decided to go full Monty on global warming, and in what was supposed to be a debate, basically conceded defeat before it even started:

In a heavily hyped debate – one that environmentalist Democrats hoped would be a “smack down” on Republicans -- former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich disappointed them and conservatives alike when he declared that human activity was causing the Earth to warm.

The concession was made in a debate on global warming with Sen. John Kerry (D.-Mass.) today on Capitol Hill that was sponsored by the Brookings Institution and the RAND Corporation.

In his first portion of allotted time Gingrich said there were two undisputed areas of scientific consensus on global warming: that the earth is getting hotter and the warming had been caused by human activity.

There's that "C" word again - consensus, which is how you say that nobody really knows without admitting complete ignorance. How about this for consensus (h/t Political Diary):

"There has been a net warming of the earth over the last century and a half, and our greenhouse gas emissions are contributing at some level. Both of these statements are almost certainly true. What of it? Recently many people have said that the earth is facing a crisis requiring urgent action. This statement has nothing to do with science. There is no compelling evidence that the warming trend we've seen will amount to anything close to catastrophe... Looking back on the earth's climate history, it's apparent that there's no such thing as an optimal temperature -- a climate at which everything is just right. The current alarm rests on the false assumption not only that we live in a perfect world, temperaturewise, but also that our warming forecasts for the year 2040 are somehow more reliable than the weatherman's forecast for next week" -- MIT meteorology professor Richard S. Lindzen, writing in Newsweek.

This pretty much confirms that Gingrich is not seriously considering a run for president. Conservatives just aren't going to be impressed with signing on to liberal global warming theology.