Yesterday, we featured the audio, and today, we have the 4-minute video clip of Barack Obama talking about bankrupting new coal plants in the US. Obama complained yesterday that his comments got taken out of context. Here we have the entire answer on coal, and the full context really doesn’t help Obama:

This still consists of Obama sending “price signals” that discourage the use of coal. He does say that getting rid of coal altogether is an illusion, but he’s obviously opposed to expanding its use or even keeping it at current levels. He wants to heavily fine coal operators in order to get “billions” for R&D on alternatives, which will send the coal industry reeling and energy prices skyrocketing, as Obama himself pledges later in the same interview.

Yesterday, Sarah Palin demanded to know why the San Francisco Chronicle sat on this story for so long.  The Chronicle responded by noting that the video has been available on their website since January 17th of this year.  However, the Chronicle never reported on these quotes from Obama, and these statements certainly seem noteworthy enough to include in any look at Obama’s policies on energy.

Even more oddly, they never provided a transcript of the interview, an almost automatic step for any meeting between national political candidates and the editors of a newspaper.  Why didn’t the Chronicle transcribe their meeting in the nine months between then and now?  Did they realize how damaging this could be to Obama’s hopes in the middle of the primaries and chose to quietly shelve the interview?