Jacob Samorodin said:

"GWB's ambitious space plan needs support beyond 2008 when another person occupies the White House. Future budgets are not guaranteed. Remember the Texas Super-Collider megaproject?"

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The nightmare scenario is that MIke Griffin gets the Shuttle and ISS close to shutdown while building up a nice head of steam behind the CEV then Hillary comes on line and says "Why are we wasting money going to the Moon when there are so many problems on the Earth?". She then terminates VSE and the whole Space Program is officially down-the-toilet. We need to get VSE past the point of no return so Hillary or who ever replaces George W. does not have the political option of torpedoing the Space Program (a tall order!).

Gary