Spaced out: Newt promises U.S. moon base and manned mission to Mars

By Michael J.W. Stickings

(For your musical pleasure, make sure to watch the clip below. It's Sinatra, dammit!)

As you may have heard, because the story was flying around the Twitterverse and pretty much ever other -verse seemingly at the speed of light, Newt Gingrich said yesterday that he would establish a permanent U.S. base on the moon by the end of his second term -- which is to say, within nine years:

In a speech pandering to Florida's aerospace community ahead of the state's primary, GOP contender Newt Gingrich made a bold pledge to establish a permanent U.S. base on the moon "by the end of my second term." He further promised that if he becomes president, America will get a man to Mars "in a remarkably short time." A budget-conscious President Obama ended the program for a lunar colony and moon trip after NASA reported it didn't have the money for any part of the plan, "and even if it were to get a budget infusion, the schedule was unworkable." Gingrich rebutted the charge that he is "grandiose" by comparing himself to Abraham Lincoln, the Wright Brothers and John F. Kennedy. ThinkProgress has previously reported on Gingrich's curious space fetish, which has included an idea for a "mirror system in space could provide the light equivalent of many full moons" for nighttime driving.

While this particular pledge is crazy, if only because it's so ridiculously unrealistic given the current fiscal situation, I'm actually willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this and to credit him for being one of the very few major political figures in the U.S. committed to space exploration.

Sure, he may have been pandering for votes, but it's not like it was his first foray into space policy (if I may call it that). And while I certainly understand the limitations imposed by the current fiscal situation and the need to focus on other, more earthly priorities (e.g., fighting climate change, fighting poverty), I am fully supportive of a strong, well-funded, and visionary U.S. space program (working in collaboration with other countries' programs), with the federal government taking an active leadership role in making it happen, just as it has in the past with the Apollo and shuttle programs, among others.

It is only human to quest, to explore, to reach out into the darkness, into the unknown. Think where we'd be today if there hadn't been that commitment to go to the moon. Or if previous generations of explorers had just stayed home. We are richer for our quest to discover, and our future, it seems to me, if we have one, lies in space as much as it does here on earth.

But... let's get back to Newt. I followed the story initially on Twitter yesterday, and I present to you here some of the best tweets that came my way (cleaned up slightly). First there was disbelief (wait, did Newt really say that?), but then the comedy virtually wrote itself:

-- Rick Klein: "Newt (really) today: 'By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American.'"

-- ThinkProgress: "Gingrich rebuts the charge that he is 'grandiose' by comparing himself to Lincoln, the Wright Bros, and JFK #nottheonion"

-- Josh Marshall: "Romney responds with plan to take over moon, load it up with debt and close it down."

-- LOLGOP: "What will Newt do if he finds aliens on the moon? What if they've been there like twenty or thirty years?"

-- Richard Skinner: "At the base, 8-year-old lunar children will #minethemoon to learn a work ethic."

-- David Corn: "Will an American born on the moon be eligible to run for president in the year 2060? #QuestionsforNewt"

-- Molly Ball: "We laugh at Newt's moon-base plans now, but our children growing up in the Pres. N.L. Gingrich Moon Colony won't be laughing."

-- Greg Sargent: "Breaking: Obama to vow to wrap the moon in US flags by the end of his second term to prove his devotion to American exceptionalism."

-- John Cole: "I think liberals should compromise and agree to permanently station Newt Gingrich on the moon."

All very funny. And of course there were many others.

But let me wrap up this post with this, if I may speak to Gingrich directly:

Newt, dear egomaniacal Newt, it's fine and even rather admirable, in a way, that you're talking up space exploration and promising a moon base, but, uh, let me be blunt: You're no Lincoln, you're no JFK, and there's no way you would have gotten that plane off the ground at Kitty Hawk. Now please get back to kicking Romney's ass as hard as you can.