President Obama leaves Thursday to meet with nearly 200 other heads of state at the Unite Nations climate summit already underway.

But as the president heads Copenhagen, Denmark, hopes of hammering out a global warming deal are dwindling.

The United States has always been one of the bad guys at Copenhagen. The Europeans view Americans as rich, energy-wasting polluters who don't care enough about saving the planet.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to shore up America's green image by pledging a lot of money to help poor nations deal with the effects of climate change.

"The United States is prepared to work with other countries toward a goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion a year by 2020 to address the climate change needs of developing countries," she said.

But world leaders immediately complained that that wasn't enough money. Now, Copenhagen is turning into part failure, part anti-capitalist circus.

The Danish hosts had envisioned a comprehensive Copenhagen deal for emissions cuts by rich nations. Now, even the U.N. insiders running the summit say that's not going to happen.

Negotiations have stalled amid disputes between rich and poor countries. While outside the talks, police have had to use tear gas and batons to disperse hundreds of environmental protesters.

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez got rousing applause when he denounced the U.S. states and capitalism as the main enemy of the climate. Chavez said if the climate was a failing bank, Western nations would do something.

The minute Obama steps off the plane in Copenhagen, he'll be defending America's record on climate change.

The U.S. is only pledging to cut emissions by 4 percent. The Europeans are pledging a whopping 20 to 30 percent.