Wow. The Yearly Kos science panel this morning was awesome, really a tour de force. Facing a full room, Wesley Clark got up there and riffed for at least twenty minutes, with impressive eloquence, about the importance of science to the American future. I wish I'd been taking notes. Here's a guy whose past--unbeknownst to me--had a lot of science in it; he's a kid of the Sputnik era, and really grasps how far we've fallen from the days when scientific innovation was at the center of America's image of itself. I was very, very impressed. (And I can't complain that at one point, Clark actually uttered the phrase "Republican War on Science.") What's really heartening to me is how so many Democratic leaders--of course Gore, but also Kerry during the 2004 campaign, and now Clark--are focusing on science and its importance to policy. The science/politics issue has come almost out of nowhere to become a topic that political candidates feel a need to address...a incredible transition, when you think about it. I am so psyched to have been sitting right there on the stage where I could watch it happen.
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