Excellent article! That “vision thing” is important, and we haven’t had a candidate who has had it since I can’t remember when...well, maybe since Reagan.
I was a Newt fan until this comment. I still may end up voting for him, but he deserves to get absolutely hammered over this, if only for the sake of intellectual honesty.
Gingrich didn't just articulate a "vision" of the U.S. returning to space. He made a very specific promise of a moon colony in 8 years, and its that promise
of a moon colony, not a general vision of returning to space, for which he is being hammered. People claiming this is attacking him for a general desire to return to space are ignoring the very specific, concrete proposal (not just a "vision") that he made.
Many of those defending him say that it is going to be paid for by private enterprise, not the government. But if this is going to be paid for by private enterprise, Gingrich cannot possibly know that it is actually going to happen within 8 years. It is entirely possible (I'd say overwhelmingly likely) that private enterprise will not see the profit in footing a bill of this magnitude in the hopes that it will, somehow, generate enough profits to pay for itself. Certainly, promising that private enterprise will do this within 8 years is simply reckless or disingenuous at best.
The only way Gingrich can actually come through with that promise is to spend federal money (like Reagan did with the shuttle program) to makes sure that it does happen. Hundreds of billions in federal money. But we're being told that isn't his plan at all -- that the money to finance this enormous venture is going to be coughed up lickety-split by private companies just begging to spend a few hundred billion over the next few years on what would amount to a huge gamble for their shareholders. Now perhaps that is possible, but for Newt to say that is going to happen is either disingenuous, or nutbaggery.