Both candidates have promised a $2 billion addition to NASA's budget to decrease the gap between the retirement of the space shuttle and arrival of the Orion capsule and Ares 1 rocket.  Ah yes, the "gap."  What power that word has for prying open the national purse strings (remember the missle gap of the 1960's?).

If this money is actually provided, how will it be used?  I see three possible scenarios:

1. The cynic would expect the funding to be used for additional space shuttle flights.  Certainly not an optimum solution, but it would narrow the gap by having the shuttle flying beyond 2010.  And, assuming no disasters, it would provide ammunition for those who would declare, "See, the shuttle is working just fine, and for just a few billion dollars more we can keep it flying until Orion and Ares 1 are flying."
2. The well-meaning NASA support would expect the funding to be applied toward Orion and Ares 1 development.  Of course, considering the new reports of potentially fatal "liftoff drift" on top of other recent engineering problems, it is legitimate to ask if the $2 billion would reduce the gap by any meaningful amount.  Engineering problems are certainly to be expected when developing space capsules and rockets, especially when sufficient funding has been lacking for several years.  With $2 billion being nothing more than filling an already existing funding gap (isn't it just so easy to use that word!?), can it really matter?
3. A NewSpace advocate would stand behind today's announcement by the Space Frontier Foundation which declared,  "It's time that our national leaders give American entrepreneurs a shot at closing this gap. Let's take the two billion dollars in the candidates' plans and fund up to five winners of COTS-D." (COTS is NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, and Capability-D refers to human transportation).

As McCain and Obama orbit NASA's star, they would do well to consider that the NewSpace industry is a reality in Florida, as evidenced by SpaceX selecting Cape Canaveral for its Falcon 9 launches.

Furthermore, they must understand that the gap that really matters is not that between the space shuttle and Orion/Ares, but the future gap that will occur between US Government (USG) spaceflight and that of China and India if the USG ignores the power of this nation's private sector.  Should this happen, the USG (i.e, NASA) will not only fall increasingly behind China and India, but behind America's NewSpace industry as well.