Bill Clinton Rally in Pictures

Bill Clinton spoke tonight at the University of Houston, trying to solidify support for Hillary in what has become a must-win state for her campaign. Michael and i were in attendance, and he’ll have a more complete write-up later. In the meantime, there are more pictures and some of my impressions from the rally below the fold.

There were a lot of homemade signs at the rally, and this one, in particular, was interesting. It was held by two people in NASA shirts and read: “Save American Spaceflight / Hillary Clinton / the candidate to support US leadership in aerospace”. The aerospace industry is big in Houston, and the fact that Obama is more lukewarm in his support of manned spaceflight is earning Clinton some votes.

During the two-hour wait, balloons were being batted around by the restless college students. At several points, they broke into rather frustrated chants of “We Want Bill”.

Chris Bell, former Congressman and 2004 Democratic candidate for Governor, endorsed Hillary tonight. More on that to come in Mike’s post.

Everyone whipped out their cameras and phones and crushed in as Bill took the stage. People-powered media is the new norm.

The aftermath.

The press seems to be burying the issue of Obama’s negative view of space exploration. Why?

Human spaceflight may lead to ways to stop global warming, and it’s important to national security as well.

I’ll be honest and say that I’m a proponent of scaling back human spaceflight at the present. I’m not saying that there should be budget cuts, because NASA does some great science. I just think NASA’s money could be better spent on more astronomy satellites and a fleet of robots to give us detailed views of what’s going on in our solar system.

Compared to space probes, human flight is enormously expensive and unwieldy. We’re fragile creatures, and carrying all of that life support equipment into space with us is an enormous expense. Imagine a hundred robots like Spirit and Opportunity scattered throughout the solar system, taking careful measurements, sending back vast mounts of information, and looking for life. The amount we could learn would be staggering.

I’m all for manned spaceflight in the future, and eventually, for the colonization of other worlds. However, I feel like the time for that will be a ways down the road.

Thank you for sharing your views and for posting the photo even though you disagree with their stand.

The main point I want to make is that space exploration is an issue in the election that is not being discussed openly but should be. Human space flight is part of our world — even if we’re not engaged in it, others will be.

I’ll agree with you that there are all kinds of science and technology issues that are getting shortchanged (as they usually are). I’ll try to do a post on that in the near future.

One thing we can do now to help change that is to sign on as a supporter of Science Debate 2008. (If you haven’t already) The candidates haven’t committed yet, but seeing a debate on these types of science and tech issues would be fantastic.