Who Will I Vote For?

It's coming time to read between the lines ...

PRESS RELEASE
Date Released: Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Source: McCain for President - Comments

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain issued the following statement on the 50th anniversary of NASA:

"Fifty years ago today, President Eisenhower signed the bill that launched the United States on the magnificent journey to space discovery and exploration. In doing so, he sent a powerful message to the world that the United States would harness its creativity, inventiveness and drive to lead all others into this most distant frontier. Since that time, Presidents of both parties have remained steadfast in guaranteeing U.S. leadership in space. Under current plans, the United States will retire the space shuttle in 2010 after its final mission to the International Space Station, and thus lose the capability to send on our own, an American, to space. While my opponent seems content to retreat from American exploration of space for a decade, I am not. As President, I will act to ensure our astronauts will continue to explore space, and not just by hitching a ride with someone else. I intend to make sure that the NASA Constellation program ha s the resources it needs so that we can begin a new era of human space exploration. A country that sent a man to the moon should expect no less."

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Obama says he'll support NASA programs
By Eun Kyung Kim • Gannett News Service • July 29, 2008

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama pledged his commitment to NASA in a statement his campaign released Tuesday congratulating the agency on its 50th anniversary.
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The declaration may surprise many NASA supporters. Earlier in his campaign, the Illinois senator said he would rather see money budgeted for Constellation, the program to replace the aging shuttles, go instead toward education reform.

Yet, Obama said he would support the agency if elected this fall.

“I believe we need to revitalize NASA’s mission to maintain America’s leadership, and recommit our nation to the space program, and as President I intend to do just that,” he said.

Obama took aim at the current Washington establishment — and the Bush administration — for failing to give NASA the sufficient support it has needed.

“In recent years, Washington has failed to give NASA a robust, balanced and adequately funded mission,” he said. “Though the good people of NASA who work day in and day out on new frontiers are doing amazing things, Americans are no longer inspired as they once were. That’s a failure of leadership.”

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, an Orlando Democrat, has said he has repeatedly spoken with Obama over the last few months about NASA’s importance to the nation, and to Florida, in particular. Obama’s statement, however, was the first suggestion of a change in his campaign’s space policy.