AmbivaBlog: Obamawatch

This is the classic children's book, Goodenough Gismo, by Richmond I. Kelsey, published in 1948. Nearly unavailable in libraries and the collector's market, it is posted here with love as an "orphan work" so that it may be seen and appreciated -- and perhaps even republished, as it deserves to be. After you read this book, it won't surprise you to learn that Richmond Irwin Kelsey (1905-1987) was an accomplished artist, or that as Dick Kelsey, he was one of the great Disney art directors, breaking your heart with "Pinocchio," "Dumbo," and "Bambi."

Online enviro magazine Grist's David Roberts interviews Barack Obama, well aware and wary of the charisma, ambition, etc. that make the young senator so radioactive in all the good and bad ways. Obama, of course, is from corn-growing Illinois (homeboy!!), and he's pushing ethanol as a big part of an energy-independence strategy.

But when I sat across from Obama in a Seattle cafe booth, I sensed no duplicity. His much-storied charisma makes such judgments difficult, of course, but he seemed to have a grasp of the energy situation far broader than bringing home the pork to his constituents. He acknowledged the limitations of his proposals but was unapologetically pragmatic about strategy. He's playing the long game.

One of the first things Obama says is that cellulosic ethanol (made from switchgrass and wood) will be considerably more economical to produce than corn-based ethanol, which costs a lot of energy to make -- energy that, with heavy irony, is currently coming from . . . coal. Yes, coal. So much for reducing fossil fuel use. Watch Obama -- if he's just a porker, he'll push corn-based ethanol in the near term anyway.

The interview is frustratingly brief. It ends with Obama parrying the inevitable 2008 feeler with deflating humor.