It was a big week for Rick Perry.
First, he tried to dismiss scientific findings on global warming as mere politics. A few hours later, Perry also disavowed evolution as a “gap”-filled “theory that’s out there.”
Perry’s attack on climate change was debunked by the Washington Post “Fact Checker” column, which gave him “four pinocchios” for claiming that the evidence on climate change was falling into scientific disrepute.
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is on record expressing his belief that humans have contributed to global warming.
And Utah governor Jon Huntsman joined him, taking a shot at Perry by tweeting: “To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.”
Huntsman’s 140-character barb was retweeted almost 4000 times, making it the most retweeted of any tweet by any GOP 2012 candidate.
Emboldened, Huntsman (and his Twitter ops) continued on a four-tweet, mega-follower-netting series that culminated with the former Utah governor wondering aloud if professing his love for ’70s experimental rock icon Captain Beefheart could make his followers “skyrocket.”
That’s right, everyone: Rick Perry’s anti-science ramblings gave Jon Huntsman the best week of his campaign.
But perhaps an even bigger accomplishment by Perry was reorganizing reality in such a way as to make Mormons—reputed to be the most politically conservative religious groups in the U.S.—appear moderate. In fact, Perry has the two climate-changing-believing Mormons in the GOP presidential hopeful pool looking like downright liberals.
And Perry himself is looking more and more like the Sharron Angle of 2012.
