I guess it all depends on what your definition of the “near future” is.
December 4, 2003:
White House isn’t ready for the moon
Despite widespread speculation that a major presidential announcement on space is at hand, White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters Thursday that President Bush has no plans to make any policy announcement about the U.S. space program “in the near future.”
January 8, 2004:
Bush to Announce Ventures to Mars and the Moon, Officials Say
Aboard Air Force One en route back to Washington, the president's press secretary, Scott McClellan, told reporters, "The president directed his administration to do a comprehensive review of our space policy, including our priorities and the future of the program, and the president will have more to say on it next week."
But another administration official cautioned that the proposal could be broad and open-ended, more in the nature of "a mission statement" rather than a detailed road map and schedule.
Still, the announcement, combined with Mr. Bush's call this week to revamp laws regarding immigration, would signal the second major policy initiative put forward by the White House at the beginning of the election year. Both new policy directives would allow the president to be portrayed as an inspirational leader whose vision goes beyond terrorism and tax cuts.
They also would have the added political benefit of diverting attention from the Democratic presidential candidates trudging through the retail politics of the Iowa caucuses.
As noted in a discussion
here at dKos last month, the space mission is seen by Karl Rove, not as another of the forward-looking efforts that has helped make America great, but as an attractive distraction that can help him keep his job until January 2009.
The thought of a trip to Mars gives a lot of us the shivers, the good kind. Another kind of shivers entirely comes from the thought of the Bush crowd using the America-as-Martian-pioneers propaganda theme in the upcoming campaign.