IgNobels for Obama

Seventy-six American Nobel laureates in science endorsed Barack
Obama this week. Despite their scientific successes, their political
analysis just doesn’t make the grade.

Featuring signatories such as James Watson — the co-discoverer of
the structure of DNA who shocked the world in 2007 with his assertion
that blacks were not as intelligent as whites — the Nobelists praised
Obama in an Oct. 28 letter
as a “visionary leader who can ensure the future of our traditional
strengths in science and technology and who can harness those strengths
to address many of our greatest problems: energy, disease, climate
change, security, and economic competitiveness.”

Although the election is between Obama and John McCain, the letter
first criticized President Bush for “stagnant or declining federal
support” of science and politicizing the scientific advisory process.

But in 2007, Bush asked Congress to double the funding for AIDS
programs from $3 billion per year to $6 billion per year. During the
Bush administration, the budget for the National Institutes of Health
increased by 38 percent from $17.1 billion to $23.7 billion. Bush
increased funding for climate change research by 15 percent from $1.75
billion to $2.02 billion. The National Science Foundation budget went
from $4.4 billion in 2001 to $6.0 billion budget in 2008. The budget
for the National Institute of Standards and Technology increased by 34
percent from 2002 to 2008 ($692 million to $931).

In August 2007, Bush even signed the so-called “America Competes
Act,” a law that would double federal funding for basic science
research by 2016. Ironically, it is the Democratic-controlled Congress
that so far has failed to appropriate funds to implement the law.

Although the Obama Web site says,“Barack Obama and Joe Biden support doubling federal funding for basic research over ten years…,” there’s no indication they’ve made any progress in convincing their fellow congressional Democrats on this point.

While the Nobelists claim that “Senator Obama understands that
Presidential leadership and federal investment in science and
technology are crucial elements in successful governance of the world’s
leading country,” they overlook the fact that McCain also supported the
America Competes Act and, on his web site, says he “will fully fund” the law.

The Nobelists’ assertion about the Bush administration politicizing
science is also a canard that boils down to their political differences
with Bush on subjects like embryonic stem cell research and global
warming.

The Nobelists wrote that, “We have lost time critical for the
development of new ways to provide energy, treat disease, reverse
climate change, strengthen our security and improve our economy.” But
what does any of this really mean?

Shouldn’t the 48 signatories who won their Nobels for chemistry and
physics return their prizes for signing a letter that calls for climate
change to be “reversed”? Just how would that be physically
accomplished? And, then, reverse the climate to what point? What it was
in, say, 1750, 1850 or 1950? Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that
they actually did reverse climate change; how would they keep climate
from changing the moment after they got it where they wanted it?

On the other hand, there’s not a single climate expert among the
letter’s signatories — so maybe they really didn’t understand what
they were signing.

The “treat disease” comment in the letter is undoubtedly aimed at
the embryonic stem cell research controversy. But despite limitations
in the U.S., the rest of the world was free to conduct such research.
Has there been any progress? There’s been nothing to speak of except a
lot of fraud — remember South Korean researcher Hwang Woo-suk?

Is Obama really a science “visionary” as compared to McCain? As
liberal-leaning Associated Press reporter Seth Borenstein wrote on
Oct.16, “Both presidential candidates… offer policies farther from the
president than they are from each other. They advocate mandatory caps
on the main global warming gas and favor federal funding for embryonic
stem cell research — positions opposite the Bush Administration.”

A quick review of the political contributions of the 76 Nobelists
revealed that at least 28 of them have contributed to Democratic
politicians, including Barack Obama. There seems to be no recent record
of any of the signatories contributing to any Republicans.

Contrary to the Nobelists positioning themselves as independent
geniuses looking out for the nation’s best interests, the group appears
to be nothing more than a collection of liberal academics who rely on
their elite status rather than well-reasoned argument to promote a
political candidate.

Steven Milloy publishes JunkScience.com and manages the Free Enterprise Action Fund. He is a junk science expert and an adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute