Kerry and his bike

John Kerry, meanwhile, is unrepentant about driving a polluting Harley. He comes off as much stronger on the environment than Dean, with a more coherent environmental vision and an emphasis on the economic benefits of environmentalism. However, he does come out with this odd bit:

Grist: In the face of war and terrorism, environmentalism has dropped considerably in the polls as a primary issue of public concern. How can we get this issue back on the map? Kerry: First of all, those polls often don't reflect people's real feelings. Polls are a snapshot of a moment. Poll results can be skewed by how questions are worded and how they are asked. When I say to audiences: Domestic, renewable sources are urgently needed now because they are entirely under our control, no foreign government can embargo them, no terrorist can seize control of them, no cartel can play games with them, no American soldier will have to risk his or her life to protect them -- audiences respond. I find that all over the country, people are responding to environmental concerns as I talk about it.

So we're going to tap into people's real concern about the environment by ... selling them an environmentally beneficial policy under the guise of national security. He gets better in his next few responses, connecting environmental issues to people's everyday experiences, but this was a weird moment.