Barack Obama Tries to Hoodwink Florida Aerospace Workers

Senator Barack Obama, having concluded that for all practical purposes that the primary campaign is over, has decided to start his general election campaign in Florida. The importance of Florida to Obama's candidacy was illustrated by his rhetoric on space exploration.

Florida Today reported an encounter between Obama and an aerospace engineer named Angel Andujar at a town hall meeting in the town of Kissimmee, Andujar asked the candidate what his plans were for NASA. Here is how Florida Today reported the response.

"I want us to understand what it is we want to accomplish, so we can continue to build this program," the Democratic presidential candidate said, as he spoke during a "town hall-style" meeting Wednesday in Kissimmee. "Other countries are in position to leapfrog us if we don't continue to make this investment."

The story went on to say:

"Obama said he would fund a strengthened space program, including the Orion program, which is designed to return Americans to the moon and later get them to Mars.

"Obama said he wanted to revive the energy the country had for the space program during the Mercury and Apollo programs. The Mercury program launched the first Americans into space, and the Apollo program landed Americans on the moon.

"'Now, even though lots of good work is being done with the shuttle program, I don't think people have as deep of a commitment to the space program,' he said."

The account as presented by the newspaper seemed more encouraging than most of Obama's pronouncements on space. However a video clip that accompanied the story had a slightly different story: