WASHINGTON (States News Service) -- Space is perhaps a zero-gravity topic in presidential elections, and the 2000 race is no exception.
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While Al Gore and George W. Bush clash on defense, where space plays a key role, any talk of America's space program is absent from the debates, reader polls and talk shows.
The reason, space historians and onlookers say, is that space lacks controversy. Even though major space missions galvanize public attention more than most issues, they are a low priority at the polls.
Space came closest to being a front-burner topic in the 1960 election, when John F. Kennedy was the first to make the United States arms race with the Soviet Union a critical campaign issue.
But Kennedy made no mention that year of sending humans to the Moon, one of the hallmarks of his administration and the nation's history. He made the announcement in May 1961, seven months after the election, in an effort to repair the public relations blunder of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba.
Few other candidates since have sought to score political points by touting civilian or commercial space programs during campaigns.
Part of the reason for this may be an aversion to funding increases, said Howard McCurdy, a professor of public affairs at American University. "Public opinion polls generally show that people are opposed to increased space spending," McCurdy said. "It doesn't have valiance among the public at large and you can get into trouble by raising" the subject.
However, there have been a handful of instances when space has become part of presidential politics, but only indirectly.
According to McCurdy, President Ronald Reagan announced the International Space Station in his 1984 State of the Union Address amid speculation that former astronaut John Glenn might be the Democratic nominee.
By announcing a major new mission, Reagan "wanted to take the space issue away from him (Glenn)," who dropped out before the general election, McCurdy said.
And in the 1972 election, President Richard Nixon made a decision that McCurdy said was an effort to curry favor with the aerospace industry. The industry, based in the key electoral state of California, asked Nixon in January to order the space shuttle to be elongated from 45 to 60 feet (13.7 to 18.2 meters), even though NASA had previously approved the shorter length.
The fall of the Soviet Union may have ended the space race, but despite a turn towards the cooperation of the 15-country International Space Station program, space in campaigns "fell off the radar screen before that," McCurdy said.
"Space is basically nonpartisan. In virtually every election there have been no major controversies about space.... everybody accepts that the United States is going to fly in space at around the same level of funding that NASA has today."
Although the International Space Station (ISS) has come to fruition under the Clinton-Gore administration, and Gore played a major part in its creation, he rarely mentions it in speeches and debates as an achievement. Conversely, while some Republicans have criticized Gore for the cost overruns on the ISS, Bush has resisted such temptations.
The non-debate may also be due in part to the lack of a major problem in space, said a congressional official with expertise in space policy. Despite recent setbacks in NASA's Mars program and costly delays on the ISS, the electorate at large is not looking for candidates to fix anything.
There has been some effort this year to bring up the question of the United States' next big mission. Members of the space advocacy group, the Mars Society, have appeared outside the presidential debates bearing red-and-white flags that read "On to Mars!"
The election is obviously being closely watched from Capitol Hill, where some in the space community are hoping that the next administration will set up a White House space council. Creating a space czar would "get space out on the forefront," said House Science Committee staff member Ruben Mitchell. "You kind of need some greater coordination."
Bush supports forming a council, while Gore doesn't.
But such debate is "space people talking among themselves," said Launius, author of Space Flight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership, a 1997 book on the role of space in presidential decision making. "The level of noise does not rise enough to reach the presidential candidates."
NASA is doing little to raise the visibility of space in the election, preferring to remain neutral. "I think both candidates have come out in support of space exploration and the International Space Station," said agency spokesman Bob Jacobs. "You can find all sorts of print material from the vice president and the governor on space exploration."
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