Sputnik Moment

Barack Obama, in his recent State of the Union Address trotted out the analogy of the USSR’s placing the Sputnik satellite in orbit in 1957 … and the U.S.’s response where JFK eventually called for placing a man on the moon before 1970. In another annoying bit of wrapping himself in the mantel of other presidential successes, Obama called our current national malaise our “Sputnik moment.” He asked that we, once again, come together as a nation and “invest” in "a level of research and development we haven't seen since the height of the space race" particularly in information technology, biomedicine, and clean-energy technology.

Now, by the word “invest” Obama is clearly talking about more massive government spending … something for which the American public (and China) has shown that it has little stomach. But more chalk-on-the-blackboard upsetting is that Obama had previously cancelled NASA’s Constellation program on which we had already spent nine billion dollars (see Constellation cancelled). This program, initiated by President Bush, was meant to be the follow-on to our space shuttle and place astronauts back on the moon and then on Mars. What is the difference, you ask? Well, placing a man on Mars is a program so huge that only governments can tackle it. Performing research in information technology, biomedicine, and clean-energy technology are all endeavors well within the capabilities of the U.S. private sector.

I suppose a man who believes that it is the government’s role to do almost everything can not make this logical distinction. Just like Jimmy Carter who spent multi-billions of taxpayer dollars on alternative fuels (more money down a rat hole), Obama believes that Washington bureaucrats will be able to take time-out from stacking and stapling papers to solve these “Sputnik moment” issues. Either that or he envisions a government take-over these private-sector industries too … just like he has done with the auto industry, the student loan industry, the home mortgage industry, and his planned take-over of the medical insurance industry.

Can we rather call this bit of rhetorical grandstanding, President Obama’s “sputtering moment?”