“Mars Rover Opportunity Drops Presidential Bid, Endorses Dean.” A satirical article with a few good laughs, particularly in the last paragraph.
|
||||
|
“Mars Rover Opportunity Drops Presidential Bid, Endorses Dean.” A satirical article with a few good laughs, particularly in the last paragraph. President Bush elected not to mention his new space initiative in last night’s State of the Union address. It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, given that he dedicated a whole speech to the topic less than a week earlier. Nonetheless, it seems like the Democrats were expecting some mention of the plan in the address: in the Democratic response, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle notes, “The president spoke of great goals, and America should never hesitate to push the boundaries of exploration. But neither should we shrink from the great goal of creating a more perfect union here at home.” What Dick Gephardt thinks about Bush’s space initiative has now largely become irrelevant, after a poor showing in Iowa. He still does have the final year of his term in Congress, and could reappear this summer as a possible running mate to whomever wins the nomination, so don’t completely ignore his views, just don’t count on hearing any more details. Another Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. John Edwards, was on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday. Host Bob Schieffer asked Edwards what he thought of returning to the Moon. Edwards’ response, according to the official transcript:
I didn’t watch the show so I don’t know if the transcript accurately represents his hesitation and uncertainty, or if the transcriber was very precisely recording all the minor pauses and missteps that any person on TV makes. Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dick Gephardt was on Meet the Press Sunday, where host Tim Russert asked him if the country could afford both Gephardt’s health care plan as well as human missions to the Moon and Mars. Gephardt’s response was not surprising, for those who followed his previous statements on the issue… In preparation for my Space Review article about the positions of the Democratic presidential candidates on space, I contacted, but did not hear from, the Wesley Clark campaign. Much to my surprise, I did get an email from them Sunday morning. However, it was clear that the campaign hadn’t read my message asking for their positions on space issues… A new poll conducted for CBS News and the New York Times suggests that a large fraction of the American public shows little interest, if not is outright opposed, to the new Bush space initiative. A few items from the poll results (go to pages 33 and 34 for the space-related questions):
These results suggest that the Administration and NASA have an uphill battle to sell this plan. Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Lieberman took some time Saturday to reiterate past statements that he would rather spend money on new initiatives to develop cures for major diseases than on a new space initiative, the AP reported:
Here’s a challenge to Lieberman and any other candidate or pundit who uses the magic “trillion-dollar” figure: back it up with facts. Now that NASA’s budget figures show a much more modest funding profile, it’s up to those who still claim that the effort will cost a trillion dollars to prove it. They may well be right—NASA is not known for doing major human spaceflight programs under budget—but simply repeating a figure that is as fantastical as it sounds does nothing for their credibility. Former Vice President Al Gore criticized the new Bush space initiative in a speech in New York on Thursday, Reuters reported. A quote from the article:
Meanwhile, the AP reported that Presidential candidate John Kerry also took a swipe at the new policy during a speech in Iowa:
I’ve noticed on the web and in mailing lists over the last day that there has been some confusion regarding exactly what is going to happen to the budget. Part of this confusion stems from the White House fact sheet announcing the new space initiative, which makes it unclear exactly how much more money NASA is getting. Some people have read it and concluded that NASA is getting only $1 billion more over the next five years, which is only partially correct. Even smart people like Jeff Bell are led to conclude the administration is saying two different things. There is, though, a method to this madness… |
||||
|
Copyright © 2026 Space Politics - All Rights Reserved Powered by WordPress & Atahualpa |
||||
