'Star Trek' Politician Fans

[TrekToday]

Barack Obama is only the most recent politician to admit that he is a fan of Star Trek.

As reported by Chicago Tribune, The admission came while Obama talked about the space program and NASA at a campaign stop in Wyoming. "I grew up on Star Trek," he said. "I believe in the final frontier." He went on to lament the fact that "NASA has lost focus and is no longer associated with inspiration."

Obama is not the first politician who is also a Star Trek fan. Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States, is an admitted fan. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is an original series fan who can name all seventy-nine episodes. Other American politicians who are Star Trek fans are: Alan Keyes (Deep Space Nine fan) and David Wu (Democrat from the House of Representatives from Oregon) who once made a speech on the House floor referring to people in the White House as Klingons. George Bush Sr. is supposedly to be a Star Trek fan.

Love of Star Trek is not confined to American politicians. Stephen Harper, Canadian Prime Minister is a fan of the original series. Finnish Parliament member Jyrki Kasvi is a fan who is partial to the Klingons.

Political royalty can also be counted as Star Trek fans. King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein, who rules Jordan, is such a fan that before he became King and was still a Prince, he once appeared in Star Trek Voyager: Investigations.

To read more, head to the links located here andhere.

[Danoz]

Now I know my vote for Obama was well placed .

[ArthurKing]

FYI

This may be true - Obama may be a fan of the series - but he certainly isn't a fan of what it represents for practical purposes.

A clear plank of his campaign is to retard the development of Project Orion (which, imho, needs to be sped up), divert funds from the space program to support various non-space / non-science programs, and reshift NASA priorities toward more earth-observation and robotic exploration and less human-exploration, pure science, and beyond earth observation.

This is actually a huge detractor for me on Obama. Yes, I know, candidates' space policy isn't likely to be a huge 'cocktail party' conversation item, but, to me (and I think a lot of other futurists, including many who are trek fans) this is a significant problem with Obama. Particularly because, unlike so many other things that presidential candidates pontificate on despite the EXTREMELY attenuated connection between what they say they'll do and what they actually can do (e.g. abortion, education, etc.) on space-program funding and research, the President's positions matter a lot.

You can guess: I'm not voting for Obama.

[Temis the Vorta]

I knew before I even opened this thread that Obamaman would be a Trekkie.

PS, George W. Bush is a Bablyoniac. Nyah!

[cardinal biggles]

Little known fact: former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fl), the guy who was forced to resign because he was writing sexually explicit e-mails to teenaged Congressional pages, was one of the few (if not only) members of Congress to sign a Washington lobbyist's petition for Paramount to give Enterprise a fifth season. :thumbsup:

With friends like these...

[ancient]

Trek fans know no political boundries, yet more proof that we're all more alike than we want to be.

[Pensive]

cardinal biggles wrote:

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Little known fact: former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fl), the guy who was forced to resign because he was writing sexually explicit e-mails to teenaged Congressional pages, was one of the few (if not only) members of Congress to sign a Washington lobbyist's petition for Paramount to give Enterprise a fifth season. :thumbsup:

So the guy was a perv that got caught. At least he had good taste in tv

[Jack Bauer]

cardinal biggles wrote:

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Little known fact: former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fl), the guy who was forced to resign because he was writing sexually explicit e-mails to teenaged Congressional pages, was one of the few (if not only) members of Congress to sign a Washington lobbyist's petition for Paramount to give Enterprise a fifth season. :thumbsup:

With friends like these...

That causes me to wonder what is Govenor Spitzer's opnion of Star Trek is.

[Flux Capacitor]

TrekToday wrote:

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<font color=yellow>George Bush Sr.</font> is supposedly to be a <i>Star Trek</i> fan.

Ugh. It's George H.W. Bush, not George Bush Sr.

[ancient]

I fail to see any real conflict there. Both seem equally correct.

[Temis the Vorta]

Jack Bauer wrote:

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That causes me to wonder what is Govenor Spitzer's opnion of Star Trek is.

He prefers Firefly.