Leo Gerard, the (Canadian) president of the United Steelworkers union? (Via Obama spokesflack @BenLaBolt)

Mr. Obama is committed to protecting clean air and clean water for our families while also helping the coal industry.

Or would it be… actually, hold on a second. WHO ASKED foreign-born and foreign-national union leader Gerard his opinion on the 2012 American Presidential election? WHY did the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette avoid noting that Mr. Gerard is not an American citizen? And why is an official campaign surrogate like Ben LaBolt uncritically propagate an article where a FOREIGNER went on to directly attack an American politician? Particularly since said foreigner had previously called for a resistance movement in the United States AND was involved in the infamous 1999 WTO riots in Seattle? Come right down to it, is there a single functional adult and competent political operative ANYWHERE in Obama for America? At all?

OK. Mini-rant over.

Anyway, who are we supposed to believe on American coal development: the Canadian Leo Gerard? Or the American President Barack Obama, and the American Vice President Joe Biden?

For those without video access: it’s showing the current President telling a friendly audience that his plan for stopping new coal plants is to make it too expensive for them to be built; and the current Vice President telling an unfriendly audience that there’s never going to be another coal plant built in the United States. Call me provincial or even jingoistic, but I think that when it comes to domestic coal production I’m more ready to believe the defiant hostility of a couple Americans over the oily apologetics of a foreigner.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: If you’re wondering what a steelworkers union president knows about coal production, well, I’m sure that the man reads newspapers.

PPS: Transcript of the ad:

Text: The Obama-Biden Attacks on American Coal Energy Jobs

Audio: “We’re not supporting clean coal. No coal plants here in America.”

Text: Vice President Biden 2008, “No coal plants here in America,” Maumee, OH, 9/17/08

Audio: “So if somebody wants to build a coal power 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”

Text: President Obama 2008, promised to bankrupt the American coal industry, interview with San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Board, 1/17/08

Audio: -“Which would you honestly say is more likely to contribute to the death of your average American: a terrorist strike, or high fructose corn syrup and air that has too much coal in it?”
-“Air that has too much coal in it, corn syrup next, then a terrorist attack”

Text: Vice President Biden 2008, ranked coal as bigger threat than a terrorist attack, Slate/Yahoo/Huffington Post Presidential Forum, 9/13/07

Text: Obama-Biden on Energy: Fewer Ohio Jobs, Higher Energy Costs