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Bridge to the 21st Century?

Is Barack Obama the future?

Presidential elections are about so much more than just a candidate's position on education, or whatever. The virulent hatred of President Bush, I think, is related more to his inability to speak forcefully, or even coherently. It's nice that he can tease himself about people misunderestimating him, but it's not enough.

So, whom should be next? Andrew Sullivan has made an interesting case for Barack Obama. Now, Sullivan is British and gay, NTTIAWWT. I mention these things only because there are a few lines in Sullivan's piece where I get the feeling that he would just like watching Barack on the "tele" for the next eight years.

"What does he offer? First and foremost: his face."

But Sullivan's main thesis is that all the other candidates, but especially Hillary, are essentially still stuck in the Baby Boomer mentality. He blames the vitriol we see from Ann Coulter to Michael Moore, the battles over abortion, health care and the rest squarely on the Baby Boomers.

Barack is the one guy, under this theory, that can just move past that, internationally and domestically.

It's an interesting theory, and the piece is well worth reading, but I think perhaps he overstates the case a bit and offer just one bit of evidence why: Barack is against funding space exploration, and says he wants to spend the money on education.

That just sounds like the old-school sort of Baby Boomer debate to me.

This is probably just my bias. I have a son who wants to be an astronaut. But spending time on NASA's page, and at the museum, and even playing around with rockets around the house, I've come to realized that space exploration is about education.

The next president will have a choice to give more money to the education industry, and/or give more money to the explorers. Learning about space is educating all of humanity about ourselves, and our place in the universe.

So, c'mon, Barack. There's only one true final frontier. Education is important, but it's time to start finding out some new stuff to teach.


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