"I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that," he told a crowd of about 200 at a town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire.



"It's important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may be significant contributors."

AS THE race for the 2012 Republican nomination looks a little silly at times, we should try to respond to unusual moments of candour with lavish positive reinforcement. To that end, let's commend Mitt Romney for his performance at a town hall on Friday in Manchester, New Hampshire:

While Mr Romney's warning shots and bells here will no doubt be uncontroversial among the majority of Americans who believe that anthropogenic climate change is real, he should be commended here for showing both sound statesmanship and good strategy.

Sound statesmanship because—regardless of the scope of climate change, its impacts, or even its existence—Mr Romney himself has already been on record as being worried about it, and the only reason he would back off that belief in the context of a Republican primary would be that he is trying to gin up votes among a sceptical primary electorate. In standing by his professed belief as the campaign gets underway, he is resisting (in this case, at least) the incentive to flip-flop, and while that shouldn't be a cause for celebration, it is.

Good strategy, because look how Mr Romney benefits from this pronouncement:

1) Although he may be penalised by voters who were climate sceptics, they would have been suspicious of him anyway, and now he does not risk incurring the charge of flip-flopping.

2) He can point to this as an issue where he has maintained a position that is unpopular with some voters, thus boosting his overall credibility levels.

3) He actually achieves more latitude in his approach to energy and environmental issues by professing this belief; for example, he can argue, with perfectly good logic, that although he perceives the need to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, he is opposed to "unilateral US cap-and-trade mandates", which would disproportionately affect the United States rather than the overall global GHG output.

Notably, Mr Romney is not the first candidate to buck against the assumed orthodoxy of the primary voters. Tim Pawlenty recently called for an end to federal energy subsidies, including to ethanol, a stand which might make him unpopular in first-in-the-nation Iowa. Sarah Palin, similarly, told reporters that "all of our energy subsidies need to be relooked at today and eliminated." A sudden surge of straight talk from the primary prospects? Let's warmly welcome it whenever it comes.

(Photo credit: AFP)