COMMENTARY | Herman Cain, the former Godfather's Pizza CEO who is running for president, has been using the space program as an issue to hit President Barack Obama with. Unfortunately he is diluting his message by being hazy on some details.
In a speech to young Republicans in Atlanta, Cain attacked the president for canceling the space shuttle program and for America's current reliance on the Russian Soyuz to take astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The only problem is that the decision to cancel the space shuttle program was made by Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush. Obama cancelled Bush's Constellation space exploration program, now partly restored by Congress.
Cain has the right idea in hitting Obama for his dysfunctional space policy. But he needs to get the details right in order to avoid criticism that he doesn't know what he is talking about. He has to come up with an alternative plan. As a businessman, Cain has to realize that pointing out problems without solutions is not a sound way of either doing business or conducting government policy.
Critiques of Obama's approach to commercial space abound as do solutions to the problem. As a businessman, Cain would be in a position to attack the crony capitalism of Obama's commercial space policy and to suggest alternate ideas.
Cain also needs to present a coherent vision for space exploration. A modest suggestion for Cain would be to focus on the moon, as strategic real estate just three days away from Earth. Its resources and position make it the gateway to the rest of the solar system. The settlement of the moon by Americans would be as great an expression of American power and economic vitality as any project could create coming out of the economic malaise the country is now mired in.
In his Atlanta speech, Cain invoked, as space advocates often do, President John F. Kennedy. Therein is the rhetorical model he should use. Cain, having developed a space policy that people will find attractive, should roll it out in a Rice University-style speech, though delivered not necessarily at the same spot at Rice Stadium that Kennedy did. A venue in an important early primary state-say Florida-should do nicely.
"We choose to return to the moon and do the other things-" Cain, an exceptional orator in his own right, could carry it off.
jcole j cole j. cole j. cole joe namath austin weather sacramento kings
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন