HEEDING TRADITION, GOP BACKS STRONG SPACE PROGRAM WASHINGTON -- Space exploration is a "national priority" of Republican presidential contender George W. Bush, according to the campaign platform adopted by his party this week at its convention in Philadelphia.
But while the party's statement speaks of "leadership" in space and "new scientific discoveries" from space missions, it is short on specifics.
George W. Bush and his wife Laura
That, political observers say, is in line with the time-honored tradition of not saying too much in a campaign platform. And it rings especially true with a subject that hasn't been in the forefront of the public's mind since the Cold War.
"Of course it's lip service," said John Pike, space policy director for the Federation of American Scientists in Washington. "Space is not a partisan issue, it's not a hot-button issue and it has been many years since it has figured in an election."
While the space program is too big and too important for a candidate not to have an opinion on the subject, Pike said, "you're not going to pick up a lot of votes on it.
"Both of the parties are fishing for swing voters in the middle so neither is going to get too far out of line," he said. "Nobody's going to say shut down NASA and neither is going to say fire off astronauts to Mars."
Indeed, the "Grand Old Party's" position on space covers just four sentences and comes near the end of a 10-page introduction that showcases tax cuts, home ownership, small businesses and other economic issues.
"We consider space travel and space science a national priority with virtually unlimited benefits, in areas ranging from medicine to micro-machinery, for those on Earth," the portion on space reads.
It pledges to "expand our knowledge of the universe and, with the support of the American people, continue the exploration of Mars and the rest of the solar system."
That space was mentioned at all in the political literature is heartening to the National Space Society in Washington, whose 22,000 members lobbied the Republicans to take up the cause.
"It was an uphill struggle to get space included and we worked very hard to that end," said Pat Dasch, executive director of the nonprofit space advocacy group.
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"This [platform] doesn't go that far but it's a very good starting point," she said. "I sense that the Republicans are recognizing space as a place where we do business and a place where we go. That is a major step given that we've had almost eight years of an administration which had tended to treat space as an implement of foreign policy."
When party platforms mention subjects like space that are outside the national debate, it often is because of heavy influence by special-interest groups, said Michael Fulda, a political scientist at Fairmont State College in Fairmont, West Virginia.
"It's usually an inside job," said Fulda, who has worked on the presidential campaigns of Rep. John Anderson of Illinois, Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis and Sen. John Glenn of Ohio. "A party platform can be a menu for items of various interest groups to read their own interpretations into it."
Fulda, a student of presidential campaigns, says it is difficult to gauge the depth of Bush's support for the space program. But as governor of Texas, "he should take the interests of the Johnson Space Center to heart."
Bush's opponent, Vice President Al Gore, is "a moving target" on space issues, Fulda said, though Gore favors U.S.-Russian cooperation in space and the use of satellites to monitor Earth's environmental changes.
Vice President Al Gore
The Democratic position on space, which will come later this month at the party's convention in Los Angeles, is expected to be similar to that of the Republicans.
"Politicians want to stay on message and that means talk about the four or five things that will attract voters and don't distract people with anything else," Pike said.
"These platforms have big chunks of boilerplate that any reasonable person would agree with but very great effort has gone into making them forgettable," he said. "At the end of the day, people who get all lathered up about them are just people who have too much time on their hands."
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