In Bush’s State of the Union speech last week, he bemoaned the fact that American students lagged behind our industrial-world competition in math and science. This gap is becoming increasingly problematic; many companies, we learned in the days that followed, are exporting their “knowledge jobs” overseas.

Of course, what Dubya doesn’t want to stare down is the fact that His America is simply downright inhospitable to science. In Dubya’s America, evolution is “just a theory.” In Dubya’s America, using stem cells to develop cures to terrible diseases is immoral. In Dubya’s America, aborting a pregnancy is not an option for a woman. In Dubya’s America, global warming is a creation of the liberal media.

In short, we will continue to lag behind the rest of the civilized world in the sciences-- and the gap will only get worse-- until we have, as John “I need your help to lose with dignity” Kerry so aptly put it, a president who believes in science.

Pandering and buffoonery, it turns out, actually have consequences.

Labels: The politics