Of GOP candidates , Gingrich has passion for American Preeminence in Space

Of the GOP candidates, Gingrich has passion for American Preeminence
Posted on December 22, 2011 by Bob
Of GOP candidates, Gingrich has passion for space program
 
Douglas MacKinnon – Orlando Sentinel (Opinion)
 
(MacKinnon is a former White House & Pentagon official and a long-time consultant on space)
 
For the rapidly dwindling number of people in our government, the media and the general population who grasp the true importance of the United States maintaining a strong and pre-eminent human-spaceflight program, there was an under-reported criticism of Newt Gingrich by Mitt Romney at a recent debate in Iowa. It deserves a great deal more attention and analysis for a few reasons.
 
During the debate, Romney tried to distinguish himself early from Gingrich by saying, “Speaker Gingrich and I have a lot of places where we disagree.”
 
OK. Unfortunately for the former governor of Massachusetts, moderator George Stephanopoulos instantly said, “Why don’t you name them?”
 
Those who saw the exchange noticed an immediate panic in Romney’s eyes. At the very least, he was having a mini Rick Perry “oops” moment as he struggled to say anything.
 
Finally, Romney said, “Places where we disagree? Ah, um, let’s see, um … we can start with his idea to have a lunar colony that would mine minerals from the moon. I’m not in favor of spending that kind of money to do that.”
 
Right after Romney’s ignorant dig at Gingrich, there was some snickering and laughter from the audience. Hence, why so many politicians are reluctant to be forceful proponents of a vibrant space program or imaginative human use of near-space. They are fearful of being lumped in with the “flying saucer” people.
 
Years ago, in researching a book, I had the honor of speaking with all 12 men who walked on the moon. To a man, they said that without a president who deeply believes in the promise of human space exploration, our program was destined to wither on the vine. How right they were.
 
Under President Obama and his rubber-stamp administrator at NASA, we have seen the dismantling of our human-spaceflight program. Much worse than that, we have seen our national security compromised for potentially decades to come.
 
Last June, during a GOP debate in New Hampshire, Gingrich combined his disenchantment with NASA and big government into a forceful sound-bite: “If you take all the money we’ve spent at NASA since we landed on the moon and you had applied that money for incentives to the private sector, we would today probably have a permanent station on the moon, three or four permanent stations in space, a new generation of lift vehicles. And instead what we’ve had is bureaucracy after bureaucracy after bureaucracy, and failure after failure.”
 
That said, like the tale of two Mitt Romneys, there is sometimes inconvenient evidence of Gingrich being on both sides of an issue. For instance, in a Feb. 12, 2010, column for The Washington Times titled “Obama’s Brave Reboot for NASA” that he co-wrote with former Congressman Bob Walker, Gingrich prematurely and foolishly praised Obama’s new vision for an agency he was actually trying to deep-six.
 
Fast-forward to Oct. 12, 2011, in Orlando and the former speaker of the House calls Obama’s decision to shut down the program a disaster and “a stupid move.”
 
Whoops.
 
Regardless of that bit of political tap-dancing, out of the GOP candidates with a realistic chance to get the nomination, it is clear that Gingrich does have a passion for the program. That he does want the United States to once again become the pre-eminent nation in space. That he does see the serious threat of the People’s Republic of China as it plans lunar colonies, while having unimpeded access to our strategic assets in low and geosynchronous orbit. And that he is not afraid to be lumped in with the “flying saucer” people if it is in the best interests of our country.
 
By taking his predictable cheap shot at Gingrich’s needed vision for space exploration, Romney spoke volumes.
 
Good thing Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, and Lewis and Clark existed and succeeded before the former head of Bain Capital could have shut down their operations and sold their ships and supplies for a tidy profit.
 
At least on the subject of human spaceflight, we don’t need a bean-counter in the Oval Office. We need a visionary.
 
END