So far, Bill Maher's the only one out there I've heard agree explicitly with my thoughts on George Bush's response to Bob Schieffer's "Is homosexuality a choice?" question in the final debate. As you'll recall, the President of United Sates of America answered, "I don't know."
I find that answer absolutely inexcusable. As Bill Maher pointed out on his HBO show Friday night, this has been Bush's answer to evolution and global warming, too, and it exhibits an ignorance if not a total disdain for science. As Maher pointed out, the jury is not out on these issues. There's clear scientific evidence that homosexuality is not a choice, that evolution is a fact, that global warming is a reality. Yet, we allow our president to say, "I don't know," thereby catering to and capitalizing upon rampant ignorance. And perhaps he really *doesn’t know,* and if so that only highlights the dearth of his qualifications for the job.
I know there are others out there who'd agree, but I'm dismayed that it's Kerry's answer (which obviously included his own political calculations) which has received all the attention. Even Andrew Sullivan said little more than "[Bush] artfully said he simply didn't know whether homosexuality is a choice."
Artful? Perhaps. But to me Bush's response speaks far more to an astonishing amount of ignorance and a disdain for science that we should be horrified to find in our President. (Yes, I'm repeating myself. Consider it emphasis.) Can we please have a President who leads us intellectually and doesn't cater to the lowest common denominator? Who doesn't likely buy into much of the superstitous nonsense still common in our country?
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