Romney: Ignorance is strength

Romney, who once supported age-appropriate sex education, now attacks Obama for supporting age-appropriate sex education. Ignorance is strength

Back when Mitt Romney was a grown-up, he supported “age-appropriate” sex education. But now that he’s regressing to adolescence in hopes of picking up the Republican nomination for President, Romney attacks Barack Obama for supporting … “age-appropriate” sex education.

I presume that means that Romney is for age-inappropriate sex education. No?

Update Here’s the YouTube clip, posted by Romney’s people. Astonishing! Romney says the appropriate amount of sex education for kindergarten kids is “zero.” That right. It’s crucial that kindergartners not be taught about sexual predators and how to avoid them.

Here’s the punchline: David Brody of Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcast Network is coming to Obama’s defense. “Romney’s comments suggesting that Obama wants to teach sex education to kindergarteners is a little misleading.” I have no idea why. Is Brody anti-Mormon? Pro-Fred Thompson? (Doesn’t look that way.) Favorably inclined toward Obama because of his religiosity? (Apparently not.) Or is Brody simply annoyed at having been lied to?

If I were looking for intellectual integrity, I wouldn’t look for it in the vicinity of Pat Robertson, but maybe Brody has some.

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com