Rock Hill, South Carolina (CNN) –Presidential candidate Rick Perry stood by his belief Saturday that manmade global warming is an unproven scientific theory while another White House contender is warning that the mindset puts the Republican Party in a "losing position" in 2012.
Former Utah governor and U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, who is trailing top tier candidates in most national polls, openly criticized Perry's position on Twitter this week. He stressed the potential impact on the party in a taped interview that airs Sunday.
"The minute that the Republican Party becomes the party–the anti-science party–we have a huge problem. We lose a whole lot of people who would otherwise allow us to win the election in 2012," Huntsman said on ABC's "This Week."
Perry defended his position Saturday as he was wrapping up a two-day bus tour in South Carolina.
"I just happen to believe that the earth's temperature has been moving up and down for millenniums now, and there are enough scientists that happen to be skeptical about the reasons for it and I happen to be one of those that are skeptical," the Texas governor told reporters. "For us to spend billions of dollars on a theory that is not proven and that you have skeptical science against that is not in America's best interest."
In the interview, Huntsman said taking a position like Perry's "that basically runs counter to what 98 of 100 climate scientists have said, what the National Academy of Sciences has said about what is causing climate change and man's contribution to it, I think we find ourselves on the wrong side of science and, therefore, in a losing position."
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney waded into the debate in June, saying he believes global warming is occurring and humans are contributing to it.
The debate raises Huntsman's profile in a crowded presidential field and allows him to highlight what some might call his appeal to moderates and independents that Republicans need in order to win against President Barack Obama in the general election.
Huntsman was also quick to jump on reports that Perry told a New Hampshire woman that evolution is a theory that's "got some gaps in it."
"To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming."
"Call me crazy," Huntsman tweeted Thursday.
From CNN Politics
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Work for us | Help
I think Perry is just a theory that has gaps (between his ears) in it.
Be careful Huntsman you're sounding reasonable making you totally unacceptable to the lunatics in the Republican party.
Ya think!! Perry is the best thing to hit this election trail since Sarah was in 2008!! A walking GObP contradiction!
Pretty soon they will all turn on each other and the field will be decimated before they even pick a nominee!
Looks good on the Party of NO, soon it will be the Party of NOBODY!! Painting themselves into a corner of running on a single platform – CUT SPENDING and let the chips fall where they may! Get your resumes ready Republicans, you are going to need them!
If the GOP had any sense, it would be Huntsman and Paul vying for the nod.
"I just happen to believe that the earth's temperature has been moving up and down for millenniums now"
------
Millenniums? LOL
Huntsman is taking a gamble in presenting a side of the Republican party Americans aren't used to seeing these days: sensible, non-ideological, rational, scientifically knowledgeable and free from the Bible-dominated set.
The direction of the GOP lately has been to prostitute their intelligence to vacuum up the votes of the least common denominator in the American electorate. It's refreshing to see a Republican candidate who recognizes that there are voters on the right-hand side of the IQ bell curve. Depending on his plans to overturn Bush's tax cuts, debts and irrational politics, he might be a Republican I could actually vote for for the first time in my life. He even speaks Mandarin so he can talk directly with our benefactors in Beijing.
But how would he govern when faced with the Mad Hatters of the Tea Party and knee-jerk Conservatives in Congress? Chances are he'd be as paralyzed as Obama has been by the Party of NO.
Of course he willdeny it could be attribted to mankind. That way he can later claim (like the rest of the fools and idiots) that "God" is causing it because man is baaaaaaad!!
Of course he will deny it could be attribted to mankind.
That way he can later claim (like the rest of the fools and idiots) that "God" is causing it because man is baaaaaaad
Did Perry really say evolutuion is only a *theory*? If so, then Perry is truly an ignorant fool. He has *no* comprehension or willingess to comprehend the difference between the colloquial *misuse* of the word theory and the *correct* scientific use of the word theory, as is theorem, NOT guess or hypothesis or assertion. Perry is just another religious fundamentalist idiot.
Perry is a very intelligent politician. I believe what he says and not some silly theory.
Maybe Huntsman is getting sick of the total ignorance and blind stupidity?
Lol, Huntsman who? AGW is a religion based upon models while ignoring the actual data. The large majority of Americans think it is BS. Anyone who runs in favor of it is automatically disqualified for their utter cluelessness.
Rick Perry is the poster child for advocacy of educational investment. If it were not for NASA sending astronauts beyond the earth's atmosphere, he would still think that the world is flat.
Huntsman is way too reasonable for the GOP nomination.
Huntsman is a moron if he thinks that rejecting skepticism and taking polls of invested scientists is the way to follow the scientific method. This is like the church "refuting" Gallileo by polling its own experts.
It's disappointing to see Huntsman fall for this kind of flim flam but he's just proving himself to be gullible.
So does Perry's 7 other Constitutional changes he wants to make to the US Constitution. I swear all these right wing conservative republicans are actually crazy or mentally ill!
I think Huntsman is the only person in that group I would vote for, as an independent.
You might be wrong, Huntsman. The American people have shown that they're quite willing to elect an idiot- George Bush won twice. If the polls show that the American people would most like to have a beer with Perry then he's gonna win. doesn't matter how clueless, close-minded, simplistic,unintelligent, arrogant, or ignorant he is.
Don't fall for it. Huntsman hangs with these backwoods lunatics here in SC, then says that he says he believes in global warming. You'll see him try to block every initiative to stop global warming if he gets to the White House, claiming that anything that might cost a millionaire or corporation a buck is ineffective. These GOPers and teabaggers are some insane people, but smart enough to lie to get what they want.
Perry is a complete idiot. A true embarrassment to our country and especially Texas. This crusader will create a second Dark Ages when science was lost for 600 years. A month or so ago French scientists grew and transplanted a human trachea created with human stem cells saving a man's life. Soon human hearts, lungs, livers and kidneys all with stem cells. The US led this science. Then Bush, the idiot, was told that God hated stem cell research. He eliminated all government investment into stem cells. The French built on our science. Another lost opportunity. Now you Texas cowboys could care less about any of this right now. If you can't blow it up, you can't understand it. But if your vengeful God decides you haven't been a good enough Christian, and he waves his magic wand and eats your lungs with cancer You may think differently. Oh and a trachea is a wind pipe.
The whole global-warming fraud is what's "anti-science."
The so-called "experts" in the field–as shown by the East Anglia mess–pervert science by looking for proof of their preconceptions–and ignoring and suppressing facts that don't support those preconceptions–rather than honestly trying to devise theories that account for all the data. This isn't science, this is religion, and Rick Perry is right to dismiss it.
Huntsman, in his efforts to appear sane (the bar is pretty low for the GOP field), is sucking up to Karl Rove and Grover Norquist, the Koch brothers' and De Voss family proxies, who will be the ones to choose the GOP presidential and VP candidates.
"...that basically runs counter to what 98 of 100 climate scientists have said, what the National Academy of Sciences has said about what is causing climate change..."
That's like saying that since 98 of 100 Catholic priests and the Pope endorse Catholicism, Catholicism must therefore be accepted as the only valid religion.
"Global warming" or "climate change" or whatever is a religion, not a science, and honest dissenting scientists are treated like heretics.
That is good that a Republican actually believes in the scientific process. The problem with Perry is that he is too much in bed with businesses that would be hurt by global climate change. The majority of "scientists" who deny climate change are often being paid by oil or coal companies. The is that science is peer reviewed and based on reviewable data. Apparently Perry doesn't understand this.
Perry's global warming, economics, religious nonsense, bigotry,excessive ignorance regarding every conceivable idea he owns....hurts the GOP.