Bill Clinton doesn't seem to remember key details of his own presidency

Clinton: U.S. will get back in climate-change game - The Denver Post

When the U.S. rejected the Kyoto climate treaty negotiated by Vice President Al Gore, "it was a tragedy," Clinton said. Yet, even if Congress had ratified that treaty, "America could not have reached its Kyoto targets."

A related link: Neither Barack Obama nor John McCain is in any hurry to ratify Kyoto

As for Obama, as an Illinois state senator in 1998, he voted for a bill supported by Illinois' powerful coal lobby, opposing Kyoto and banning the state from regulating greenhouse gases.

To understand how entrenched American opposition to Kyoto is, recall that the year before, then U.S. president Bill Clinton and vice-president Al Gore -- yeah, that Al Gore -- abandoned attempts to get the U.S. to ratify Kyoto for their remaining three years in office.

That after the U.S. Senate, which must ratify international treaties, voted 95-0 -- Democrats unanimously joining with Republicans -- to reject Kyoto for exempting the developing world from reducing greenhouse gases.