Whatever global warming might or might not have done to polar bears, it has put Rick Perry's presidential candidacy at risk. The Texas governor clings to an ice floe of diminishing credibility, emerging in just about a week's time as intellectually unqualified to be President. He engaged in a brief dialogue with a child about evolution and came out the loser. Perry said there are some gaps in the theory. If so, he is one.

Maybe more important, Perry waxed wrongly on global warming. He rejected the notion that it is at least partially a product of industrialization, asserting that "a substantial number of scientists have manipulated data" to make it appear that mankind - our cars, trains, automobiles, not to mention China's belching steel mills - is the culprit. He said that an increasing number of scientists have challenged this notion and that, in conclusion, he stood with them - whoever they might be. In Appleton, Wis., Sen. Joe McCarthy's skeleton rattled a bit.