Leadership Quote by Andrew Card

Card’s dismissal is engineered to sound like hard-nosed realism while quietly rewriting the record. Calling Kyoto “a flawed process” sidesteps the treaty’s actual aim - binding emissions cuts for rich countries - and instead puts the procedure itself on trial. It’s a classic Washington move: debate the paperwork, not the carbon.

The giveaway is the sweeping claim that “there isn’t one industrialized country…that has ratified.” In the early 2000s, many industrialized nations had ratified Kyoto; the United States had not, and neither had Australia at that moment. Card’s line functions less as a factual report than as a permission structure. If “no one” is on board, then refusing to join becomes prudence rather than isolation. It’s herd logic deployed to justify opting out of the herd.

“Non-starter” does additional work. It frames Kyoto not as a contested political choice but as something dead on arrival, beneath negotiation. That rhetorical move narrows the policy horizon: instead of “How should the U.S. meet obligations?” the question becomes “What’s the next, more acceptable framework?” In context - Card as a senior Bush White House figure amid industry pressure and post-9/11 governing priorities - the statement signals allegiance to domestic economic and energy interests while keeping the posture of international engagement.

The intent isn’t to critique Kyoto so much as to de-legitimize binding climate commitments altogether, by making unilateral U.S. rejection sound like merely acknowledging reality.