Hanging in a Searing Hot Somerset Dirt Field Not My Idea of Fun

There were a whole lot of sweaty Democrats in Somerset on Wednesday. New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell was not one of them. Mitchell had a prior engagement in New York that he just couldn't get out of. Smart guy.

The Biden White House announced this week that it would host an event at the former Brayton Point Power plant to discuss "climate change" and what Biden's administration planned to do about it. The event drew eager participants from as far as Boston and Washington, D.C.

Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka was there, as was House Speaker Ron Mariano. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Ed Markey, Rep. Bill Keating, and Rep. Jake Auchincloss traveled to Somerset aboard Air Force One with Biden.

Climate Czar John Kerry made the trip from D.C. as well.

When Somerset State Rep. Patricia Haddad (D) appeared on my program on Tuesday afternoon, she was still wrangling for an invite to Biden's event. She got one, probably from Congressman Auchincloss (D), who seems to have had something to do with bringing Biden to Somerset in the first place.

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The temperature in Somerset on Wednesday afternoon was above 90 degrees, and the humidity was oppressive. It was a miserable day for members of the press and invited guests to sit in the middle of a giant field of dirt overlooking Mount Hope Bay to listen to a presidential speech telling them it is getting hotter.

I've done a number of those things over the many years I've been in this business and was mighty grateful not to have to do this one.

Politics and media have become all about optics. Wouldn't it have been just as effective for Biden to deliver his remarks from his office?

Think about the carbon footprint created by flying a jumbo jet from Washington to Rhode Island and back again for this speech. What about the convoy of SUVs that brought all of those people from T. F. Green Airport in Warwick to Somerset and still others from Boston?