So we would have been second to the Moon - assuming the Soviets ever stopped blowing up their moon rockets. Everybody else on the planet was second to the Moon. See anyone losing sleep about it? Including the Russians?

I'm glad we went to the Moon when we did, but I remember the Moon plans being discussed in the late 50s. They involved a long, detailed program of reusable launch vehicles, orbital facilities doing useful work, moon vehicles built in orbit, and large-scale landings. The result would have been a robust space system and methods for actually utilizing space resources. It's been 40 years since we left the Moon. Where are we now? NASA has spent the last few years trying to re-invent something we had a generation ago.

In any case, Obama was referring to the massive Federal education effort made after Sputnik.

That didn't really work as advertised either.