Mr. Candidate…..

Rick Perry in a brain freeze during the Presidential debate last night could not remember which federal agency he would cut. I was surprised he did not blurt out NASA (of course not, given how big NASA is in Houston in his home state) or some other science/technology oriented program.

As  Shawn Lawrence Otto points in his new book, way too many politicians, on the right and left, are “assaulting science”. As he says “Absurd comments are now not only politically acceptable, but passionately applauded.”

As he did in 2008, he will be leading the charge in 2012 to get the candidates to take explicit positions on various science and technology issues. Expect more brain freezes.