“No Drama” Obama somehow managed to step in it again last week, plunging himself into the Skip Gates arrest and racial politics when he was meant to be drumming up support for health care reform.

If the measure of how badly the White House narrative veered off course is to observe that many of the Sunday shows spent more time on ObamaGates (I might have to trademark that one) than they did on health care, it is worth noting that Waxman-Markey is barely in the rear view mirror anymore. It does not appear to be on the Senate’s radar either.

Any hope of climate change legislation is rapidly fading and Waxman-Markey is poised to become another smudge on the road, steam rolled by the political process in much the same way the BTU Tax, Kyoto ratification, and previous energy-environment bills were.

What went wrong? I’m interested in your thoughts on whether cap-and-trade ever had a chance? Or, is strategy to blame for squandering the best chance at climate change legislation that we have had in a generation? If so, who dropped the ball? The White House? The House Dems? Senate leadership?

I’ll post my “three strikes” below, but what do you think killed cap-and-trade?

Related posts:

• How Will Clean Energy Legislation Affect Electricity Prices?
• Clean Energy & Green Technology Floundering Towards A Green Economy
• Clean Energy Spending Urged for ‘Post-Partisan’ Climate Policy
• Where is Cap & Trade Legislation Now?
• Cap & Trade – Obama’s Win Is the States’ Loss