"Wake up from the fantasies we'd all love to believe. The sad fact of the matter is that we all need to know political reality when it slaps us in the face. While "political reality" sounds like an oxymoron, the simple truth is that until there's strong support in the White House and Congress for an ambitious expansion of the space program - be it returning to the moon or going to Mars - it isn't going to happen. There is no such support today nor is there likely to be any in the foreseeable future."

I think there is support from Congress and the White House of "real" commerical development of space. For instance one of the selling points of ISS was commerical development. The problem with ISS being a way of developing commerical activity in space, is that NASA's "environment" is hostile to any commerical ventures. Mir was more "friendly" than ISS.

NASA's problem isn't lack of support by Congress, the White House, or general public. NASA simply isn't doing the job it was created to do. NASA is a lousy worker, it does "everything" but the job it's hired to do. Evenually, we will get tired of it's song and dance. Unless, NASA gets to work doing what it is supposed to do, it will evenually be fired.