We went to the moon already. I’m not sure it’s really the job of government to make moon colonies.
But you know, if you are going to suddenly decide that we should spend money we borrow from China on a space program, the best place to say that politically is in Florida, right before the Florida primary.
I realize it’s politically advantageous for Newt to speak about the moon program being in Florida. But Newt said himself 90% of what he proposes would be private sector focused.
Newt is trying to tease out the idea of AMERICANS achieving these dreams ...not government controlling those dreams. As president, he’d urge us on ... he’d do his job, and we could be released to do ours.
Romney just behaves as if he’d be the gatekeeper of all ideas and that if HE thought it was a bad idea, it coudln’t get done. He can just buzz off.
Newt pointed out in his speech that, indeed, government is ill-suited to do the development. Instead, the idea is to provide an environment and incentives for that development (of space and technology.)
Now, that said, the prospect of the Chinese setting up permanent shop on the moon first IS a concern of the U.S. Government. Just for starters, that means, at some point, the Chinese surpass us in aviation and space technology. Think about what that means. And that’s just for starters. The Chinese are no fools. They are very smart, very ambitious, very hard workers, and, at this time in our civilization, better long term planners. They absolutely know what they are about.
As to your other point, in younger years, Gingrich was a reader of speculative fiction (Asimov, etc.) and the old “techie” rocket mags, so I hardly think his ideas are completely new, at least not to him. They certainly are not new to a lot of us in tech areas of work. But I think it took Obama management of NASA to make it clear just how far we have sunk. So, at some point you re-focus and re-fire: Are you saying there is a better place and time than the Florida primary to do so?
BTW, from a discussion on another thread I know you are a fellow music-lover: You really ought to hear those carbon nanotube diaphragm speakers! Pricey now, yes, but like early computers, they are but a foretaste of things to come. :-)