Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman is enjoying the best week of his, until now, largely irrelevant presidential campaign. On Thursday, Huntsman tweaked Texas Gov. Rick Perry with a 90 character tweet: “To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.”
A whopping 3,600 users re-tweeted Huntsman thoughts on evolution, which according to Adam Green of 140Elect.com, is a new record for Republican presidential candidates. Huntsman not only gained 4,275 twitter followers that day, but ABC News even awarded Huntsman prime billing on This Week. Huntsman did not disappoint ABC News producers by backing off his evolution fetish. Huntsman told Tapper:
Is Huntsman right? Is the embrace of creationism by prominent Republicans like Perry losing “a whole lot of people who would otherwise allow [Republicans] to win the election in 2012”? I think not.
I do know plenty of people who say they would never vote for a Republican because some in the party believe in creationism. But these are the same people who believe that the reason many of the seniors who do manage to graduate from Oakland Tech can’t read, is becasue some school board 1,300 miles away in Kansas allowed a single paragraph on creationism into their science textbooks. In other words, the only voters who are care enough about whether or not dinosaurs are taught in schools, are hard-core liberals who would never vote for a Republican anyway.
Voters are telling pollsters that “economy,” “jobs,” “deficits,” and “debt” are the issues that matter most to them. Is Huntsman taking a brave stand on any of these issues? No. He appears to want to run on dinasours and climate change.
Good luck with that.
