If President Barack Obama expected to get any "bounce" from December's international climate change talks in Copenhagen in terms of gaining U.S. Senate acceptance of comprehensive climate change legislation, he must have been sorely disappointed. Of course, after his recent State of the Union address--with its focus on domestic jobs--perhaps the president's climate change ambitions are diminished.

During the State of the Union address, the president did laud the U.S. House of Representatives' passage of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill. Certain passages in his address were defiant in their refusal to scale back his ambition despite the trying times.

The fundamental problem the president confronts with respect to cap-andtrade legislation, however, is that the biggest political "knocks" against it go right to the heart of his domestic jobs agenda. Opponents of cap-and-trade legislation deride it as disastrous for the economy and as incentivizing the export of U.S. jobs.