Ask About Evolution at the GOP Debate

img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-101721" title="charles darwin" src="/files/wxrimport/2011-08/charles-darwin.jpg" alt="" width="460" height="288" /><

Jon Huntsman has decided to set himself apart from a large part of the GOP field by affirmatively declaring on twitter that he believes evolution and climate change are real:

To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.

Prompting James Pethokoukis to ask: "Will we now get an evolution/global warming question at next GOP debate?"

I hope the answer to this question is "yes." The great thing is that there is precedent for this. In one of the GOP primary debates in 2007, John McCain was asked whether or not he believed in evolution. He responded that he did, and the moderator then asked for a show of hands of candidates who did not believe in evolution.

Although the GOP is often viewed as the party opposed to science, remarkably, only three candidates raised their hands: Sam Brownback, Mike Huckabee, and Tom Tancredo.

It would be noteworthy if the number of hands that go up in response to that question increase, and if those hands belong to actual frontrunners.

My big worry is what Rick Perry would do. According to Rick Perry, not only do they teach creationism and evolution in Texas, he also answered a question about evolution by saying the Earth is "pretty old."