Palin Pile-On: Is Using Unnamed Sources Fair, or Is It Just Gossip?

FOX's Carl Cameron's report on "The O'Reilly Factor" has opened some questions about the inner workings of the McCain organization, especially relating to Gov. Sarah Palin and a possible ugly rift within the campaign. But it also gives pause to the use of unnamed sources. Here's the segment:



After that was aired, Greta Van Susteren talked to Politico's Alex Burns about this issue, defending Palin:



The New York Times’s Elisabeth Bumiller wrote on the rift as well. The story uses a number of unnamed sources, but also talks about the backlash of the reports:

Advisers in the McCain campaign, in suggesting that Palin advisors had been leaking damaging information about the McCain campaign to the news media, said they were particularly suspicious of Randy Scheunemann, Mr. McCain’s top foreign policy aide who had a central role in preparing Ms. Palin for the vice-presidential debate.

As a result, two senior members of the McCain campaign said on Wednesday that Mr. Scheunemann had been fired from the campaign in its final days. But Rick Davis, the McCain campaign manager, and Mr. Salter, one of Mr. McCain’s closest advisers, said Wednesday that Mr. Scheunemann had in fact not been dismissed. Mr. Scheunemann, who picked up the phone in his office at McCain campaign headquarters on Wednesday afternoon, responded that “anybody who says I was fired is either lying or delusional or a whack job.”

Newsweek’s web election recap also is mostly based on anonymous comments from campaign advisers, but it takes a different tone and and concentrates on ligitimate subject matters. Although at one point it does touch on Palin's towel incident.

The disclosures are among many revealed in "How He Did It, 2008," the latest installment in NEWSWEEK's Special Election Project, which was first published in 1984. As in the previous editions, "How He Did It, 2008" is an inside, behind-the-scenes account of the presidential election produced by a special team of reporters working for more than a year on an embargoed basis and detached from the weekly magazine and Newsweek.com. Everything the project team learns is kept confidential until the day after the polls close.

This is classic study in the use of unnamed sources and the problems that practice might cause. When journalists use an unnamed source, it's usually for the purpose of gaining some kind of information we couldn't receive on the record. Anonymous sources should only be used when we cannot report on information that is reliable and newsworthy otherwise.

So, the question becomes, are the Palin stories truly newsworthy? Or is it rather a case of CYA by the McCain staff? In my book, the Palin reports are pure gossip, and mean-spirited gossip at that. She couldn't name the countries in NAFTA? I'd bet 98 percent of Americans couldn't. She didn't know Africa was a continent? Well, that is a bit embarrassing, but once again, unfortunately we are a nation of geography-ignorant people. Did she come out of her bathroom in a towel? Most people do after a shower. There might have been an explanation. She might have not known the aides were there, and then it would be the aides' fault, not hers. But we don't know, because anonymous sources only give one side of a story.

The Newsweek article, on the other hand, sticks to issues. Here's a taste of its writing:

The Obama campaign was provided with reports from the Secret Service showing a sharp and disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October, at the same time that many crowds at Palin rallies became more frenzied. Michelle Obama was shaken by the vituperative crowds and the hot rhetoric from the GOP candidates. "Why would they try to make people hate us?" Michelle asked a top campaign aide.

On the Sunday night before the last debate, McCain's core group of advisers—Steve Schmidt, Rick Davis, adman Fred Davis, strategist Greg Strimple, pollster Bill McInturff and strategy director Sarah Simmons—met to decide whether to tell McCain that the race was effectively over, that he no longer had a chance to win. The consensus in the room was no, not yet, not while he still had "a pulse."

The Obama campaign's New Media experts created a computer program that would allow a "flusher"—the term for a volunteer who rounds up nonvoters on Election Day—to know exactly who had, and had not, voted in real time. They dubbed it Project Houdini, because of the way names disappear off the list instantly once people are identified as they wait in line at their local polling station.

Palin launched her attack on Obama's association with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber, before the campaign had finalized a plan to raise the issue. McCain's advisers were working on a strategy that they hoped to unveil the following week, but McCain had not signed off on it, and top adviser Mark Salter was resisting.

The point is that the Palin stories serve no purpose other than to smear someone and provide giggles. It's especially distasteful to kick someone when they are down. And she is a person who has been kicked around enough in the past few months, whether it is her email account being hacked or attacks on her family.

This certainly is not one of our finest moments in journalism. Are we supposed to feel proud of reporting like this? It's this type of reporting that makes our readers and viewers despise us at times.

Terrell (Texas) Newspaper Refuses to Publish Story on Obama's Election

First there was the incident where the Rockdale (Ga.) Citizen downplayed the presidential election, but the Terrell (Texas) Tribune took it one step further by not even publishing a presidential election story anywhere.

Byron Harris of WFAA TV in Dallas reports:

Protestors spoke out Thursday against The Terrell Tribune's decision not to put Barack Obama's presidential victory on its front page.

The day after Obama was elected as president, the banner headline for the Tribune focused on the county commissioner's race. The headline read, "Jackson defeats Schoen."

About 25 residents, who said they had hoped to save the local paper with Obama's victory noted front page, picketed the newspaper's office Thursday.

"That's what I wanted, a keepsake," said Lera Duncan, who was among the protestors. "And this was very disappointing to me."

"They could have knocked me over with a feather," said Sarah Whitaker. "I was flabbergasted. I couldn't imagine such an historical event would not be on the front page somewhere on The Terrell Tribune."

Protestors pointed out that on Election Day, the Tribune had printed a John McCain-focused story as their lead story on the front page.

"It's not the people in the community," said another protestor. "It's the paper itself."

The Terrell Tribune's publisher, Bill Jordan, declined an on-camera interview.

"We run a newspaper, not a memory book service," he said. "We covered the local commissioner's race. We thought that was more important."

For those who may believe race played a part in the decision, the publisher pointed out that Democrat J.C. Jackson, who was at the center of the main story and who won the race for county commissioner, is an African American.

But while there were a few Obama-related stories within the paper, there was no story devoted to the presidential victory.

Unemployment Up to 6.5 Percent; Nonfarm Payroll Off by 240,000

Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported this morning that nonfarm payroll employment fell by 240,000 in October, and the unemployment rate rose from 6.1 to 6.5 percent. October's drop in payroll employment followed declines of 127,000 in August and 284,000 in September, as revised. Employment has fallen by 1.2 million in the first 10 months of 2008; over half of the decrease has occurred in the past 3 months. In October, job losses continued in manufacturing, construction, and several service-providing industries. Health care and mining continued to add jobs.

Unemployment (Household Survey Data)
The unemployment rate rose by 0.4 percentage point to 6.5 percent in October, and the number of unemployed persons increased by 603,000 to 10.1 million. Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has increased by 2.8 million, and the unemployment rate has risen by 1.7 percentage points.

The unemployment rates for adult men (6.3 percent), adult women (5.3 percent), whites (5.9 percent), and Hispanics (8.8 percent) rose in October. The jobless rates for teenagers (20.6 percent) and blacks (11.1 percent) were little changed. The unemployment rate for Asians in October was 3.8 percent, not seasonally adjusted.

Among the unemployed, the number of persons who lost their job and did not expect to be recalled to work rose by 615,000 to 4.4 million in October. Over the past 12 months, the size of this group has increased by 1.7 million.

In October, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) rose by 249,000 to 2.3 million. The long-term unemployed accounted for 22.3 percent of total unemployment. The newly unemployed--those who were jobless fewer than 5 weeks--increased by 212,000 to 3.1 million in October.

Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)
The civilian labor force participation rate (66.1 percent) and the employment-population ratio (61.8 percent) were little changed in October. Since a recent high in December 2006, the employment-population ratio has declined by 1.6 percentage points.

Study: Voter Turnout the Same as 2004

Despite lofty predictions by some academics, pundits, and practitioners that voter turnout would reach levels not seen since the turn of the last century, the percentage of eligible citizens casting ballots in the 2008 presidential election stayed at virtually the same relatively high level as it reached in the polarized election of 2004, a study announced yesterday.

The American University’s Center for the Study of the American Electorate reported that voter turnout in Tuesday’s election was the same in percentage as it was four years ago — or at most has risen by less than 1 percent.

The study says between 126.5 million and 128.5 million Americans cast ballots in the presidential election, representing 60.7 percent or, at most, 61.7 percent of those eligible to vote in the country.

“A downturn in the number and percentage of Republican voters going to the polls seemed to be the primary explanation for the lower than predicted turnout,” the report said. Compared to 2004, Republican turnout declined by 1.3 percentage points to 28.7 percent, while Democratic turnout increased by 2.6 points from 28.7 percent in 2004 to 31.3 percent in 2008.

“Many people were fooled (including this student of politics although less so than many others) by this year’s increase in registration (more than 10 million added to the rolls), citizens’ willingness to stand for hours even in inclement weather to vote early, the likely rise in youth and African American voting, and the extensive grassroots organizing network of the Obama campaign into believing that turnout would be substantially higher than in 2004,” Curtis Gans, the center’s director, said in the report. “But we failed to realize that the registration increase was driven by Democratic and independent registration and that the long lines at the polls were mostly populated by Democrats.”

Gans attributed the GOP downturn to three factors:

1) Sen. John McCain’s efforts to unite the differing factions in the Republican Party by the nomination of Gov. Sarah Palin as vice presidential nominee was a singular failure. By election time many culturally conservative Republicans still did not see him as one of their own and stayed home, while moderate Republicans saw the nomination of Palin reckless and worried about McCain’s steadiness.

2) As events moved towards Election Day, there was a growing perception of a Democratic landslide, discouraging GOP voters.

3) The 2008 election was a mirror image of the 2004 election. In the 2004 election, the enthusiasm level was on the Republican side. By Election Day, Democratic voters were not motivated by their candidate but rather by opposition to President Bush, while Republican voters had a much greater liking for their standard bearer. In 2008 and according to polls from several sources, by at least 20 percentage points, Obama enjoyed stronger allegiance than McCain. Even the best get-out-the-vote activities tend to be as successful as the affirmative emotional context in which they are working. In 2004, that context favored the GOP. In 2008, it favored the Democrats.

Chris Matthews: It's My Job to Make Sure Obama's Presidency Works

Chris Matthews announced today that it's his job as a commentator to make sure president-elect Barack Obama succeed as president.

"Well you know what, I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new presidency work," he told Joe Scarborourgh on air on MSNBC. "That's my job. My job is to help my country. ... to make this work successfully because this country needs a successful presidency."

Most commentators and journalists like to think of themselves as watchdogs of the government and advocates for the common man. This is a unique perspective from Matthews, the ideal that it is his role to do everything he can to make the presidency work for the good of the country. He certainly didn't have that view during the presidency of George Bush.

Georgia Paper Plays Obama Below Fold, Under 'Dog Attacks Kids'

Yes, we all know that local news is king. People buy newspapers, especially in small towns, to find out what is happening in their city councils and their neighborhoods. But did the Rockdale (GA) Citizen really have to play Obama winning the presidential election below the fold (with the smallest head count on the page no less) underneath a story headlined "Dog Attacks Kids at School"?

Officials at the Citizen have yet to comment on their decision on the play of the stories.

Obama Wins With Strong Showing in Indiana

Sen. Barack Obama, an unknown state senator from Illinois four years ago who has cast a vision for change across the country, has won the election tonight to the highest office in the land. He will become the 44th president of the United States next Jan. 20th.

Obama is close in Indiana's rural areas. When the urban area of Gary's votes are reported, he will take that state and its 11 electoral votes. The Associated Press has reported that its exit polls show that 33 percent of people who voted for the GOP governor in Indiana voted for Obama, which is a strong indication he will win the state.

In addition to Indiana, Obama has projected safe margins in California (55 electoral votes), New York (31), Illinois (21), Pennsylvania (21), Michigan (17), New Jersey (15), Massachusetts (12), Washington (11), Maryland (10), Minnesota (10), Wisconsin (10), Connecticut (7), Iowa (7), Oregon (7), New Mexico (5), Maine (4), Hawaii (4), Rhode Island (4), Delaware (3), District of Columbia (3), and Vermont (3). The total now will be at least 271 electoral votes, clinching the White House. He needed 270 electoral votes to win.

Obama was born of modest means in Hawaii on Aug. 4, 1961. His father, Barack Obama Sr., was born and raised in a small village in Kenya, where he grew up herding goats with his own father, who was a domestic servant to the British.

Barack's mother, Ann Dunham, grew up in small-town Kansas. Her father worked on oil rigs during the Depression, and then signed up for World War II after Pearl Harbor, where he marched across Europe in Patton's army. Her mother went to work on a bomber assembly line, and after the war, they studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing Program, and moved west to Hawaii.

It was there, at the University of Hawaii, where Barack's parents met. His mother was a student there, and his father had won a scholarship that allowed him to leave Kenya and pursue his dreams in America.

Barack's father eventually returned to Kenya, and Barack grew up with his mother in Hawaii, and for a few years in Indonesia. Later, he moved to New York, where he graduated from Columbia University in 1983.

At Harvard Law School he became the first black person to serve as president of the Harvard Law Review. Obama worked as a community organizer and practiced as a civil-rights attorney before serving three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. He taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, he announced his campaign for the U.S. Senate in January 2003. After a primary victory in March 2004, Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He was elected to the Senate in November 2004 with 70 percent of the vote.

He defeated Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton during the primaries this year in a heated campaign that almost went to the convention floor.

Obama Wins in Pennsylvania

In a state in which was hotly contested, especially during the final days of campaigning, Sen. Barack Obama has won in Pennsylvania and now claims that state's 21 electoral votes, MSNBC News has declared. That now gives him 103 electoral votes.

McCain Wins Tennessee and Oklahoma

As expected, Sen. John McCain has taken Tennessee and Oklahoma, giving him 34 electoral votes.

Obama Wins Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, D.C.

Sen. Barack Obama has won his home state of Illinois. He has also been declared the winner in Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, and the District of Columbia. This pushes his electoral college count to 77.

Early Lead for McCain in Virginia

One hour after the polls have closed in Virginia, state officials say Sen. John McCain is leading 53 percent to 43 percent. This represents more than 20 percent of the vote in that key state.

McCain Wins in South Carolina

NBC has declared Sen. John McCain as the winner in South Carolina. That was expected. He will earn eight electoral votes there.

Virginia's Democrat Mark Warner Takes GOP Senate Seat

Democrat Mark Warner on Tuesday won his bid to replace retiring Republican Sen. John Warner in the U.S. Senate race in Virginia, a victory that will help Democrats solidify their hold on Congress.

All the major networks have called this race. With six percent of the precincts reporting, Warner has 57 percent of the vote.

Warner, a popular former governor, beat Republican Jim Gilmore, also a former governor. Warner's election means Democrats will hold both U.S. Senate seats as well as the governor's mansion in this once solidly Republican Southern state.

Obama Wins Vermont

Vermont is called for Sen. Barack Obama, who was expected to win the state's three electoral votes.

Strong Obama Start in Indiana Results

Early results from the polls that have already closed in Indiana show Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. John McCain, 50 percent to 49 percent, at 6:45 p.m. Eastern. This result, which represents only two percent of the state total, comes from rural areas in which the GOP outnumber Democrats by 3 to 1.

If these trends were to continue for the rest of the night, it's going to be a short evening. Obama was expected to trail early in Indiana and catch up when polls close in the western portion of the state at 7 p.m. Eastern. McCain was supposed to be strong in the rural areas while Obama was to fare well in Gary.

Early Results: McCain Wins Kentucky; New Hampshire Leans Toward Obama

Sen. John McCain has won in a strong showing in Kentucky, earning 62 percent of the vote in early results. Sen. Barack Obama has the same margin in New Hampshire, but that state is still in question. Both states closed their polls about 20 minutes ago.

Portions of Indiana have closed their polls, but no results are in.

Kentucky has eight electoral votes, Indiana has 11, and New Hampshire has four.

In the Kentucky Senate race, early returns have incumbent Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell with a slight lead over his Democratic opponent Bruce Lunsford, 54 percent to 46 percent, at 6:30 p.m. Eastern.

Two Dressed in Black Panthers Attire Intimidate Voters in Philadelphia

There are already a number of reports of voting problems in key battleground states such as Virginia, Pennsylvania and Florida.

At one precinct in Philadelphia, guards wearing Black Panthers attire and armed with nightsticks are in front of the doors of a polling site intimidating voters. Here is raw footage filmed by a student.



Here is a news report from FOX:



And here is raw footage of the pair being dealt with by police:



David Bario, writing for The American Lawyer at amlawdaikly.com, reports:

The polls have only been open a few hours, but reports of malfunctioning voting machines and overwhelmed polling stations already are flooding in. Jonah Goldman, director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections, says he and other Election Protection partners are most concerned so far about Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Florida, where massive voter turnout is overwhelming already vulnerable voting systems.

In Virginia, election protection monitors are describing massive machine breakdowns, which are being compounded by the absence of state provisions to provide back-up paper ballots when the machines fail. Voters in Richmond, Chesapeake, Fairfax, and Arlington are stuck in long lines, and some are being given provisional ballots to speed up the process. Those provisional ballots should be treated like regular ballots, Goldman says, but there are concerns that they will not be. There also are reports of voters being turned away from the polls and voter intimidation. Over two dozen polling places opened late, leading Election Protection officials to call for voting hours to be extended by two hours. Check back for more on the situation in Virginia later this afternoon.

Pennsylvania has similar reports of long lines and malfunctioning machines. In Pittsburgh, poll workers were so overwhelmed that local election authorities deputized Election Protection monitors in the spot to deal with the crowds.

In Florida, in addition to long lines, at least two dozen polling places centered in the Tampa and St. Petersburg areas have reported malfunctioning optical scan machines.

In Virginia, water dripping from an early-morning rain onto optical-scan paper ballots have made some of the ballot impossible to scan, Ryan Enright, a spokesman for the State Board of Elections, told CNN.

Election officials are encouraging voters to dry off before filling out ballots. Damp ballots will be allowed to dry before being tabulated, Enright said. This step will mean a longer processing time for election officials, but it should not affect voters' wait times, he said.

Karl Rove: Obama Will Win Big, 338-200

Karl Rove has predicted a huge win for Sen. Barack Obama today by 138 electoral votes.

The final Rove & Co. electoral map of the 2008 election cycle points to a 338-200 Barack Obama electoral vote victory over John McCain tomorrow, the largest electoral margin since 1996. All remaining toss-up states have been allocated to the candidate leading in them, with Florida (27 EV) going to Obama, and Indiana (11 EV), Missouri (11 EV), North Carolina (15 EV), and North Dakota (3 EV) going to McCain. The two candidates are in a dead heat in Missouri and North Carolina, but they go to McCain because the most recent polls conducted over this past weekend show him narrowly ahead. Florida, too, could end up in McCain’s column since he’s benefited from recent movement in the state.

Here is his map and comments.

What to Watch in the Election Returns Tonight

Without using a crystal ball, here are a few key things to look for as you settle in tonight to watch the election returns.

1. Virginia. The final polls in this battleground state give the edge to Sen. Barack Obama by four or five percentage points. If you look at the polls for other states, Obama could already have pocketed 260 electoral votes. Virginia has 13 electoral votes and its polls close at 7 p.m. Eastern. If the networks and the Associated Press call Virginia for Obama soon after the polls close, Sen. John McCain will be forced to win in some blue state elsewhere on the map, which is highly unlikely. An Obama win in Virginia means an early win for the Democrat.

2. For the record, Obama has big leads here. These are the blue states on the map that have given Obama the edge going into today's election because they total 260 electoral votes: California (55 electoral votes), New York (31), Illinois (21), Pennsylvania (21), Michigan (17), New Jersey (15), Massachusetts (12), Washington (11), Maryland (10), Minnesota (10), Wisconsin (10), Connecticut (7), Iowa (7), Oregon (7), New Mexico (5), Maine (4), Hawaii (4), Rhode Island (4), Delaware (3), District of Columbia (3), and Vermont (3).

3. McCain must sweep the battleground table in order to win. This is what makes it so difficult for the Republican to come out ahead tonight. In order to overtake Obama, McCain must win in Florida (27 electoral votes), Ohio (20), North Carolina (15), Virginia (13), Indiana (11), Missouri (11), and Colorado (9). That puts him at 266. He would then need either Nevada (5) or New Hampshire (4). Lose any one of those states (or both Nevada and Montana) without taking a blue state by surprise and Obama becomes president. Montana at 3 electoral votes does not help.

4. McCain has to defend his own turf. In addition to winning all of those key battleground states, McCain must successfully defend his red states. These are states where McCain seems to be safely ahead in the polls. They are Alabama (9 electoral votes), Alaska (3), Arizona (10), Arkansas (6), Georgia (15), Idaho (4), Kansas (6), Kentucky (8), Louisiana (9), Mississippi (6), Nebraska (5), North Dakota (3), Oklahoma (7), South Carolina (8), South Dakota (3), Tennessee (11), Texas (34), Utah (5), West Virginia (5) and Wyoming (3). But remember, some polls have him in trouble in Georgia and Arizona. So McCain has no guarantee of winning in these states like Obama has in winning his blue states.

Heavy Turnout in Pennsylvania

To the shock for nobody, I work in an office that is also a polling station in Pennsylvania and the line outside is amazing. Voting opens in a few minutes, and people have been camped out in lawn chairs for hours. It's like we're selling tickets for a Rolling Stones concert.

So, at least at this one voting precinct in Pennsylvania, turnout is very heavy.

Networks Poised to Call Election for Obama Before Polls Close

The major television networks are prepared to call the election before polls close on the West Coast if Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. John McCain gain the magic number of 270 electoral votes early.

Paul J. Gough of Reuters writes this morning:

"There's no way to get around it," CBS News senior vp Paul Friedman said. "If one man gets 270 electoral votes before the West Coast polls are closed, we're not going to pretend (he doesn't)."

Phil Alongi, who runs special events programing at NBC News, agrees.

"If you project a state and (the candidate) reaches the electoral vote, what are you going to do? Lie?" Alongi said. "We will project a state when we're comfortable with the projection. If one of them hits the required 270, you have to report that, and you can't hold back."

The networks all have agreed not to call an individual state before the voting stops there. But an overall projection could come before folks in California, Nevada and Washington finish voting. Executives know it's a fine line that they'll be walking, and it goes beyond a strict up-and-down counting to 270.

"Suppose that one guy has 260 (electoral votes) and we have exit polls and other information indicating that he's going to pick up the votes he needs," Friedman said. "It becomes the delicate matter of telling the audience of what we think is going to happen without discouraging them to vote."

CNN Washington bureau chief David Bohrman, who grew up on the West Coast, is acutely aware of the issue. But he said CNN can't hold back. That doesn't mean, however, that the networks won't take pains to say that, even with an early victory, it's important to vote. Friedman said there are plenty of House and Senate races and local issues that need to be decided regardless.

"We're acutely aware of not wanting to be in the position of discouraging people from voting," Friedman said. "But we're not someone's nanny. There are reasons to vote on the West Coast (even with the presidential race decided)."

Obama: I'll Bankrupt Anyone Who Will Start a Coal Plant

Here is Sen. Barack Obama's thoughts on the coal industRy, as he stated in an interview with the San Fransisco Chronicle during the primary campaign:

Let me sort of describe my overall policy.

What I've said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else's out there.

I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted.

That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches.

The only thing I've said with respect to coal, I haven't been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as a (sic) ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It's just that it will bankrupt them.