I'm still trying to decide whether it's best for the commission to recommend an ambitious program, knowing the 'rats will discontinue it at the first opportunity, or a less ambitious one designed to survive multiple administrations (knowing that in reality no such plan is possible, either, since the 'rats will automatically kill almost anything republicans begin, and certainly will kill almost any Bush space program out of sheer spite).
It's pitiful to think we might be reduced to planning no further ahead than the end of Bush's next term in office.
Perhaps something that could be accomplished in four years and yet would be absolutely breathtaking once completed -- just to tickle the public's imagination and get them behind these projects . . . like a space elevator???
Spending tens of billions of dollars while plodding along at a snail's pace, only to put men back on the moon by the year 2020 strikes me as a loser (ito survivability).