In a letter to the editor in Monday’s Houston Chronicle, astronaut John Young mentions that he was among the Apollo veterans that met with President Bush at the White House last month. (Earlier reports had suggested that only the Apollo 11 crew met with the President.) Young said that Bush, in private, continued to strongly support the exploration vision:
In the Oval Office, I heard President Bush’s commitment to exploring space and to meeting the goals of the vision he proposed in January. He is determined to provide and I am confident he is providing the national leadership required for us to return to the moon and move even further into the cosmos.
Proponents of the vision no doubt wonder, though, when the president plans to publicly demonstrate “the national leadership” needed for the vision to become reality.
Bush knows his unpopularity will poison the vision if he comes out for it, so he’ll mention it only when forced to during the debates. Hopefully he won’t swell the ranks of the earth firsters too much with whatever he says.