Because there was a Rat in the White House at the time....You can bet if it happened on Nixon's watch, they would have been all over it, blaming the Republicans.
Well of course. LBJ pushed the timeline set originially under VP Nixon who oversaw establishment of the space program. LBJ did this to meet the JFK pronouncement of reaching the moon within 10 years. Even today many people still believe that JFK initiated the space program and the goal of a moon landing as well. You’re right, if Nixon had been president he would have been blamed because he began the program. LBJ with his journalist devotees made the story fall off the pages pretty quickly and he was forced to order a slowdown and review of his previously ambitious schedule.