Sigue Sigue Sputnik

At Commentary, Abe Greenwald diagnoses the president’s “Sputnik Sputter:”

Twitter is abuzz with this leaked excerpt from tonight’s State of the Union address:

Half a century ago, when the Soviets beat us into space with the launch of a satellite called Sputnik¸ we had no idea how we’d beat them to the moon. The science wasn’t there yet. NASA didn’t even exist.

But after investing in better research and education, we didn’t just surpass the Soviets; we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs.

This is our generation’s Sputnik moment.

So, naturally, Obama is dramatically shrinking our ambitions for space exploration.

Germans? Sputniks over Pearl Habor? Forget it, he’s rolling — with the yet another appearance of a century-old favorite whenever it’s time to spend taxpayer money and/or takeaway taxpayer freedoms, the Moral Equivalent of War — Freud called it displacement.

Meanwhile, taking his cue from the president’s Cold War-era rhetoric, Steve Green has plenty of ice and clear Russian liquid on hand to get through the rest of the State of the Union, via his patented drunkblogging.

Kids, don’t try this at home — but if you do, try a little extra vermouth in your Martinis; you really don’t want them all that dry.