Science

Obama Picks Up New Space/Tech Endorsements

This morning the Washington Post reported that the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, an AFL-CIO affiliated labor union whose membership includes engineers, scientists and technicians at the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, NASA and Boeing, endorsed Barack Obama. The 85,000 person organization surveyed the candidates last year and posted their responses […]

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This morning the Washington Post reported that the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, an AFL-CIO affiliated labor union whose membership includes engineers, scientists and technicians at the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, NASA and Boeing, endorsed Barack Obama.

The 85,000 person organization surveyed the candidates last year and posted their responses online. The Union's Executive Council voted yesterday without opposition to endorse the Senator. In Obama's response to the endorsement he said,

"I’ll support vigorous reinvestment in our federal research and development agencies, including NASA, to maintain America’s leadership in Science and Technology and to foster economic competitiveness."

Obama also picked up an endorsement today from Super Delegate and Congressman David Wu (D-OR). Wu represents the "Silicon Forest" area (which includes the southwest part of Portland) and is the Chair of the Technology and Innovation Subcommittee as well as a member of the Space Subcommittee of the House of Representative. This puts Obama at 240 Super Delegates and 291 delegates away from capturing the democratic nomination.

A long list of people endorsing Obama can be found on Wikipedia, which also hosts a list for Clinton.

Many people in the space community are still concerned about Obama's statements about delaying NASA's Constellation program five years (sending humans to the moon), a move that could have serious consequences for the future of human space exploration. Perhaps getting more people supporting the Obama campaign who support human space exploration will bring in some new thinking on how the United States can use its human spaceflight program to support education, the economy, the environment and help foster international cooperation.

IFPTE Endorses Senator Barack Obama For President [IFPTE]
Congressman David Wu Endorses Barack Obama for President [BarackObama.com]

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Image courtesy of BarackObama.com