"3) The space board will continue to suffer as it has with the focus on the war and election because due to hostile feelings."

I think that Bush can't push space issues, because he doesn't want to politize the issue AND because it's not a political advantage at this time to push it AND because it takes time to change for NASA to change direction. I think he wanted to lay the ground work to push it in his second term and that why he started the ball rolling last year.

My prediction is Bush will win and has good chance of winning in a landside [winning in both New York and California]. If Bush wins, I think we have far less attention on Iraq. Iraq will become like Afghanistan- still reported, but world news in general will not be the lead stories. We could get more human interest stories out of Iraq- soldiers and Iraqis.

The Shuttle will launch in March and also think that around this time we will become less interested in Iraq and politics and more interested in space.

"Election results will affect plans

BY TODD HALVORSON
FLORIDA TODAY

CAPE CANAVERAL -- NASA's plan to send robotic scouts to the moon in advance of astronauts is starting to take shape, but politics and the presidential election are stalling progress.

Congress appears poised to ax most if not all start-up money for an initial lunar mapping mission in 2008 but won't finalize the agency's budget before the election Tuesday. "
http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/spacestoryN1031MOONMISSION0.htm
Linked from NASAWatch

In terms of laws passed by Congress, Bush is sort of like a lame duck before the election. But in terms of acting as commander in chief [particularly since the funding goes well beyond Jan 20] he is fully in command regardless of election until Jan 20. So, if Iraqis actually knew this, then the US elections shouldn't cause them any short term concerns.