In a stunning admission by GOP presidential hopeful, Tim Pawlenty, he informs us of what we already knew:

PAWLENTY: Well, anybody who’s going to run for this office who’s been in an executive position, or may run, has got some clunkers in their record. Laura, mine I think are fewer and less severe than most. As to climate change, or more specifically cap-and-trade, I’ve just come out and admitted it — look, it was a mistake, it was stupid. […]

Everybody in the race, well at least the big names in the race, embraced climate change or cap-and-trade at one point or another. Every one of us.

As Think Progress points out:

Indeed, from Pawlenty to Mitt Romney to Newt Gingrich to Mike Huckabee to Mitch Danlies to Sarah Palin, many of the leading contenders for the 2012 presidential nomination have reversed themselves on climate change to pander to their hard-right base over the past few years.

What I haven’t heard yet is why? Why have all these candidates flip-flopped? Is it just to appease their radical base, or do they have some of their own scientific evidence debunking global warming?