Reality-based Republicans need not apply

On climate change, Rick Perry adheres to the Homer Simpson school of thought: It's a "librul" hoax dreamed up by grant-obsessed, data-manipulating scientists looking to score big bucks. This is preposterous of course. Mitt Romney says he believes the science behind global warming. But he's damn careful to just whisper it -- and then only when pressed. Sadly, such profiles in courage are par for the course in Republican circles. But today, the Jon Huntsman team grew a set (aka a Hail Mary pass). Deflecting conservative dogma like a fencing opponent's blade, John Weaver (Huntsman's chief strategist) went all attaque au fer on both Perry and Mitt Romney. "We're not going to win a national election if we become the anti-science party," Weaver boldly told the Washington Post. "The American people are looking for someone who lives in reality and is a truth teller because that's the only way that the significant problems this country faces can be solved. It appears that the only science that Mitt Romney believes in is the science of polling, and that science clearly was not a mandatory course for Governor Perry." It's good to know that at least one candidate still resides in the reality-based world. But that's exactly why Huntsman won't win his party's nomination. That honor will go either to Rick ("Facts are meaningless") Perry or Mitt ("Which way is the wind blowing?") Romney. Nice.