Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee who is soaring in Iowa amongst Evangelical voters, just received a major endorsement from the conservative right. Jerry Falwell Jr. son of the late televangelist and chancellor of Liberty University has just announced his endorsement.

So I am fighting off a major cold of some kind and my sinuses are going crazy. So sorry about the lull in updates. I am also fighting off RSS withdrawl.
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As I noted the other day the Obama campaign released a new education plan that included a little something extra at the end, the announcement that it would ‘delay’ funding for NASA’s Constellation program. This program would create a new human spaceflight vehicle to replace the soon to be retired space shuttle and would lead to manned exploration of the Moon and one day Mars. Without it America will be without the ability to send humans to space without the assistance of Russia and our ability to stay competitive edge over Russa, China and India in a race to the moon would be lost.

Now the issue is hitting the campaign trail and the Internet. So where does Obama’s main rival, Senator Hillary Clinton, stand on the issue? Clinton spokesman Isaac Baker said the following

“Senator Clinton does not support delaying the Constellation program and intends to maintain American leadership in space exploration.”

So far Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain’s camp haven’t said what they would do about the program. Mitt Romney has said in the past does support the Bush initiative to return to the Moon and go to Mars. Meanwhile an RNC spokesperson jumped on the Obama position saying “It is ironic that Barack Obama’s plan to help our children reach for the stars is financed in part by slashing a program that helps us learn about those very same stars.”

Meanwhile John Edwards responded “We need a balanced space and aeronautics program. We need to support solar system exploration as an important goal for our human and robotic programs, but only as one goal among several” which does not sound like a ringing endorsement.

Senator Clinton’s campign has been the most vigorous in denouncing the Obama position thus far. Earlier in the year on October 4th 2007 Clinton gave a speech at Carnegie Institution for Science in which she spoke about ending the “war on science” waged in recent years by the Bush administration and others. In that speech she said:

I will pursue an ambitious agenda in space exploration and earth sciences. I’ll fully fund NASA’s earth sciences program, launch a new, comprehensive space-based study of climate change, and reverse the deep funding cuts that NASA’s and FAA’s aeronautics research and development budgets have endured in the last few years.

The top three democrats have said they will not attend a planned Dec. 10th CBS News debate unless the corporation can come to an agreement with workers who have authorized a strike.

Personally I am glad to have one less of these debates.

Today the Michigan State Supreme Court approved a Jan. 15th primary date. In response New Hampshire governor has announced his state will move its primary to January 8th, the earliest date for the NH primary ever and just five days after Iowa.

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has been writing a book about his term in the administration. This morning his publisher released a small nugget from the book in which McClellan reveals he passed along false information on behalf of the admin in the Valerie Plame CIA leak case.

The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.

There was one problem. It was not true.

I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President’s chief of staff, and the president himself.

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From an interview with Charlie Gibson:

“I think she’s a very formidable candidate, and one of the interesting things that she brings is that she has been under pressure. She understands the klieg lights,” the president said, in a phrase he repeated twice in the interview.

“No question, there is no question that Senator Clinton understands pressure better than any of the candidates, you know, in the race because she lived in the White House and sees it first –could see it first-hand,” the president told ABC News’ Charlie Gibson Tuesday afternoon at the presidential retreat at Camp David.

Bush sees Clinton winning the nomination and losing the election, echoing thoughts by other Republicans including Karl Rove. Though it is nice to hear the president be candid I do wonder why he would continue the Clinton line that her experience in the White House as First Lady would prepare her for handling the pressure of the job?

Isn’t the current Republican line that Clinton not being an executive in government or business disqualifies her and being First Lady is not a valid resume?

Marc Ambinder put out an advance look at a new WMUR poll in New Hampshire that shows a loss in lead for Hillary Clinton. It now shakes up as follows:

HRC: 36% (was 43)
Obama: 22% (was 20)
Edwards 13% (was 12)
Richardson 12% (was 6)

Obviously this is one poll and we will need to see if the trend continues but what I find interesting isn’t that Clinton’s lead shrunk, as most other media outlets are reporting, but that it shrunk and Richardson was the benefactor in this. Again too early to tell but it is interesting Obama wasn’t the benefactor but Richardson.

The early education plan will be paid for by delaying the NASA Constellation Program for five years, using purchase cards and the negotiating power of the government to reduce costs of standardized procurement, auctioning surplus federal property, and reducing the erroneous payments identified by the Government Accountability Office, and closing the CEO pay deductibility loophole. The rest of the plan will be funded using a small portion of the savings associated with fighting the war in Iraq.

• Reform No Child Left Behind
• Reward effective teaching
• Make math and science a national priority in education

He would pay for a number of his initiatives by delaying a plan for the United States of America to return to the moon and be a stepping stone for human exploration of Mars. This leaves me wondering how we can make science and math a national priority for students while canceling an initiative that would make America competitive with China, Russia, India & Japan while creating scientific discoveries that could fuel our economy not to mention inspire child. A five year delay would likely remove any competitive edge the U.S. has over other nations.

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After receiving the National Right to Life Committee endorsement and then finding himself in some trouble over comments made about the Terry Schiavo case, Fred Thompson talked about the issue on This Week. The former Senator stands by his position that the federal government went too far in that case and that such decisions should be made at the state level. With that said he stands by his position that in ever decision he hopes families, doctors and governments stay on the side of life.

Thompson has also suggested that Roe v. Wade should be overturned but unlike many of his conservative colleagues believes abortion should be left up to the states. It is a position Mike Huckabee has begun using against Thompson.