How Michele Bachmann Gives Me Hope

Michele Bachmann is getting a lot of heat for her comment after Monday night's debate about the woman who told her her daughter became mentally retarded after getting the HPV vaccine. Here's only one editorial I've seen on this:

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2011/09/michele_bachmanns_dangerous_in.html

Wouldn't it be great if a presidential candidate finally sank after making a scientifically false or dubious statement? Wouldn't it resurrect your faith in the electorate, in the media, and even in America for at least one brief moment? Might candidates also start getting slammed for their junky views on evolution and their inanities on climate science, and begin to actually read the Executive Summaries of all those reports being produced?

Could this be the turning point we're waiting for, when the fever of irrationalism broke and half the country didn't dismiss science and critical thinking as elitist?

Probably not. But it's a glimmer of hope. And who doesn't need that now?