Free Republic

The day after the hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, Presidential Science Czar John Holdren was asked about going up against Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan. Holdren's response was breath taking in its mendacity.

Competitiveness: The president spent Tax Day reassuring Florida voters that money will keep flowing to NASA. But in space as well as on Earth, we'll be an unexceptional nation. In space, no one can hear you scheme. President Obama's speech at the Kennedy Space Center will never be confused with President Kennedy's clarion call in 1961 to send an American to the moon within a decade. Rather it was an admission that we will now boldly go where no one wants to go.

As the presidential race enters its final week and the candidates step up their efforts to woo the space vote, both sides are trotting out the biggest space guns they can find: Apollo astronauts. Over the weekend, Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham toured cities around Florida to help promote Republican hopeful Sen. John McCain’s campaign by backing the candidate and his space platform. Cunningham said he had never campaigned for a candidate before but said that unlike Democratic contender Sen. Barack Obama, McCain had a track record supporting NASA and was more reliable on the issue. Obama, he said, was...