Ignorant or Uneducated???

As super-conservative Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee continues to gain grounds in national polls of Republican voters, the spotlight on him is unsurprisingly brightening. The latest? This AP story discussing some written Huckabee statements regarding HIV/AIDS back in the early 90s.

My gut reaction to this was "nice knowing you, former potential Republican nominee Mike Huckabeee." But then I read the bulk of the article (something which I fear many will not). And it got me thinking. Were these statements those of an ignorant, gun-toting, gay-bashing Southerner? Or those of someone who was simply uneducated on the topic?

I tried to recall what, if anything, I knew about AIDS back in 1992. Of course, that was a long time ago (sadly, many, many years before I could actually convince a girl to sleep with me such that I had to worry about safe sex). All I can really remember was that, as of 1992, HIV/AIDS was the disease that killed Magic Johnson. Of course, Magic did not die from the virus, and has actually gone on to live a pretty healthy, very successful career post-NBA. I'd have to guess that his biggest health concern these days is to avoid gaining any more weight cuz then even the Big & Tall stores won't have anything for him.

Anyways, I guess my point is this. While at first many people will react the way I did and assume that Huckabee is just a homophobic ingorant biyatch, he's probably not. Before passing judgment (on a candidate I would NEVER vote for, FYI), one should think about all that we've learned about HIV/AIDS over the past 15 years. Now if we could just find a way to isolate the carriers of the other plague known as Republicanism. Actually, I guess that's what the Central and Mountain time zones are for.