So Rick Santorum made this silly statement a few weeks ago, saying that our colleges had deteriorated to the point where none of the University of California schools offered classes in U.S. History. A number of voices, but mainly that of Rachel Maddow, pointed out that this is not true; that plenty of U.S. History courses have always been available at those schools and still are. Weeks later, Santorum sent the following message to Ms. Maddow…
Rachel, on a recent show you discussed a statement I made that American history was not being taught at a number of California state universities. You questioned the accuracy of my statement. Based upon your broadcast I went back and reviewed the facts. It's clear that my memory about what was taught was faulty. What I should have said was that none of the UC campuses teach a survey course in Western Civilization. Rachel, I appreciate your efforts pointing out my misstatement, and for giving me the opportunity to set the record straight.
Rick Santorum
And of course, he's wrong again. As Maddow pointed out on her show the other night, those schools also have plenty of survey courses on Western Civilization. This, they confirmed with a few minutes of Googling.
I really don't get this. If you're Rick Santorum and you're issuing an apology like this, you have to know it's going to make it to the air and be fact-checked. Don't you turn to an intern or someone and say, "Hey, before I send this out, call up the University of California and make sure they don't offer courses in Western Civilization so I don't look like an idiot again"? And there were people who wanted this man to have the job where you get to order a nuclear attack.