Obama's Commissions

When Barack Obama devised his commission in 2009 to determine what to do with the U.S. space program, he pretty much already knew what he wanted to do: scrap the ambitious and important plan from the previous administration to set up a base on the moon. So what happened but the commission (surprise, surprise) recommended that the President abandon Bush's plan in favor of some vague future projects to land on an asteroid or Mars. And, incidentally, also contract out all launching rockets, making NASA essentially helpless in trying to launch people into space for a few years. It was just what Obama had wanted all along, since he has never been the least bit interested in space exploration and only promised Florida voters that he would stick with Bush's project in order to win that state in the 2008 election. In the words of that rude-ass South Carolina congressman during the President's address last year, "You lie!"

But Obama had authority to dictate whatever changes in NASA that he wanted since this is a federal agency and he is the president. Now he has another commission delivering its report: how to reduce the federal deficit. And it appears that Obama may have gone just a bit too far with his love of study commissions.

After all, it is Congress that determines the federal budget, with the president able to wield some power with the threat of veto. Almost no one likes the commission's findings, so the outcome can only make Obama appear to be weak and ineffectual.

Maybe our president can learn from this in setting up his future commissions (for which he may just have a couple of more years). Make sure you can control who is on the commission as well as assure that the results of their research conforms to your own preconceived ideas. And then make sure that this all takes place in an area that you can act upon without needing to cooperate or compromise with others who may have conflicting views. If you can accomplish this, then you can once again arrogantly flip off criticisms of your decisions with ignorant comments like the one that we aren't going to the moon because "we've already been there". Well, Mr. President, I've "already been there" in the voting booth, voting for you in '08. Maybe I don't have to go back there either!