Space Politics

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O’Keefe endorses McCain

January 28, 2008 at 1:12 pm · Filed under Campaign '08

The John McCain campaign announced today that the Republican presidential candidate has been endorsed by former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe. O’Keefe: “John’s commitment to our national security and to exploration and discovery, coupled with his passion to improve our nation’s math and science education system to assure American competitiveness, should lead all Americans to conclude that he is the right person to lead our country.” McCain’s response: “Sean has been a friend and colleague for many years and I appreciate his support. His leadership during a challenging time in the rich NASA history helped put our nation’s quest for exploration on track.”

The press release notes that O’Keefe is currently chancellor of LSU, and throws in a disclaimer that O’Keefe’s endorsement does not constitute an endorsement by the university. The release doesn’t note, though, that O’Keefe announced his plans to resign as LSU chancellor earlier this month.

(Tangential note: I first found this press release on a newswire service called Standard Newswire, whose logo captured my attention: a stylized version of what is clearly Skylab, along with the words “Connect with the World”. What a space station that deorbited nearly 30 years ago has to do with connecting with the world beats me.)

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11 Comments »

The People wrote @ January 28th, 2008 at 7:57 pm

I like O’Keefe, but in all honesty, big wup.

Mr Earl wrote @ January 28th, 2008 at 9:52 pm

I would think that this endorsement has more to do with their relationship during O’Keefe’s time in the Pentagon not NASA.

J.B. wrote @ January 28th, 2008 at 9:55 pm

I do think it’s worthy of note that the McCain campaign even bothered to do a press release about this. 99% of Americans have never heard of O’Keefe and have no idea who he is. Such a press release can only have had an intended audience of pro-space voters, especially in Florida. One wonders why the McCain folks did this when the earlier release on space policy was so utterly lacking in substance.

D. Messier wrote @ January 28th, 2008 at 11:36 pm

Well, that ought to put McCain over the top. It definitely locks up the “Sean O’Keefe Was the Second Coming of Jim Webb” vote.

Keith Cowing wrote @ January 29th, 2008 at 12:28 am

Gee Doug, where exactly did the first presidential dedication to space exploration in a generation come from …. you know, the one you complain has been under funded? Just who was it that was whispering in Bush’s ear?

If you are going to complain about Bush’s obvious under funding of something you think has merit (otherwise why complain about the under funding?) you can’t dump on the original architect of the plan that you feel is under funded.

OK - you can whine now.

D. Messier wrote @ January 29th, 2008 at 2:07 am

Your comments speak for themselves, really. I don’t even need to respond to this.

gm wrote @ January 29th, 2008 at 3:59 am

a (possible) solution for the Ares-1 “vibrations” problem:
http://www.ghostnasa.com/posts/022novibrations.html

actionforspace.com wrote @ January 29th, 2008 at 8:51 am

I got an email from someone in the McCain campaign talking about his space policy that I have posted some of at actionforspace.com

Keith Cowing wrote @ January 29th, 2008 at 9:29 am

Doug: “I don’t even need to respond to this.”

But you did respond.

D. Messier wrote @ January 29th, 2008 at 11:00 am

And your point is….?

Bruce Behrhorst wrote @ January 29th, 2008 at 6:46 pm

Birds of a feather flock together when you’re trying to make NASA the biggest space bureaucracy on the planet.