Typical Liberal Arrogance And Condescension

This time from Steven Chu, Obama's Energy Secretary:

Energy Secretary Steven Chu believes that Americans are acting like teenagers and aren't acting the way they should act on changing behavior to reduce green-house gas production.Chu also believes the world is at a tipping point on climate change. 
The Wall Street Journal reported:

When it comes to greenhouse-gas emissions, Energy Secretary Steven Chu sees Americans as unruly teenagers and the Administration as the parent that will have to teach them a few lessons.

Speaking on the sidelines of a smart grid conference in Washington,Dr. Chu said he didn't think average folks had the know-how or will to to change their behavior enough to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

"The American public…just like your teenage kids, aren't acting in a way that they should act," Dr. Chu said. "The American public has to really understand in their core how important this issue is." (In that case, the Energy Department has a few renegade teens of its own.)

The administration aims to teach them—literally. The Environmental Protection Agency is focusing on real children. Partnering with the Parent Teacher Organization, the agency earlier this month launched a cross-country tour of 6,000 schools to teach students about climate change and energy efficiency.

"We're showing people across the country how energy efficiency can be part of what they do every day," said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. "Confronting climate change, saving money on our utility bills, and reducing our use of heavily-polluting energy can be as easy as making a few small changes."

Still, Secretary Chu said he didn't think that the public would throw the same political temper tantrum over climate legislation has has happened with the healthcare debate.

Wow, it's kind of hard to get any less respectful, isn't it?  Of course, given the instant blowback to this dripping condescension, Chu's abrupt about-face was also typical of the liberal elitist mantra: uh, never mind, I didn't mean that (translation: you must have misunderstood me, you ignorant rube):

UPDATE: Chu just changed his tune.

An update: Energy Department spokesman Dan Leistikow added: "Secretary Chu was not comparing the public to teenagers. He was saying that we need to educate teenagers about ways to save energy. He also recognized the need to educate the broader public about how important clean energy industries are to our competitive position in the global economy. He believes public officials do have an obligation to make their case to the American people on major legislation, and that's what he's doing."

This is all part of the lead-up to the unveiling of Obama's cap-n-tax bill, which is supposed to happen sometime in the next week or two.  We've already hit that topic hard, but we'll hit it even harder once the actual bill comes out.  It will most likely be another economy-buster.  In fact, that's precisely the point of cap-n-tax; Obama already admitted it.

Stay tuned.  The fireworks will begin shortly.

There's my two cents.