There are some things about President Obama’s track record so far (vast as it is) that concern me: legal stances on state secrets and habeus corpus, questionable handling of the economic situation, and possibly accountability for torture (I haven’t made up my mind on that one yet).

But one man can’t be all things to all people, and there is one area where Obama has been reminding me of why I was so excited about him in the first place: science.

I swooned when he said “We will restore science to its rightful place…” in his inaugural. I was thrilled when he named Nobel-winner Steven Chu as Secretary of Energy. And I may be the only one who got excited when he chose Robert Groves for Census Director because he is in favor of statiscial sampling.

I guess I never realized that what I always wanted, in my heart of hearts, is a technocrat in the white house (though I probably shouldn’t have wondered).

And now comes word that Obama is proposing a big budget increase for science across various institutions. I think I need to sit down.

This after eight years of general anti-intellectual bullying. And the encroachment of fringe, pseudoscientific, conspiracy-theory whackjobbery into public policy (creationism here, global warming here, abstinence-only education here, I could go on).

Sadly, it’s still going on. Sometimes in public venues. Now, however, we have some people who can put the smackdown on that. If you missed Dr. Steven Chu’s remedial Geology for Congressmen, then go check it.

So is it okay to unabashedly use reason again? Not sure. But with various departments being run by people who might actually know what the hell they’re doing, there’s cause for optimism.