Obama's Not the First to Use 'Sputnik Moment'

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No mention of the man who first mentioned this idea, or some kind of background information on where the phrase came from? Wow.
"At the moment of Sputnik the planet became a global theater in which there are no spectators but only actors" was the title of Marshall McLuhan's 1974 essay on technology's influence on the world:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1974.tb00354.x/abstract
Pretty sure McLuhan would be sad-yet-amused to see his revolutionary message used in political rhetoric.

Michelle Rae Anderson of OR 12:55PM October 24, 2011

Obama, as the ideological marrow of the Democrat is as well, is still infatuated with all things Soviet.
Yeah, the Soviet's deployment of the Sputnik satellite awakened America into the the space age...to end up beating the yogurt out of the Soviets, with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on moon soil.
But, so did Paul Revere awaken sleeping colonials on the approaching monarchical troops.
Hence, any normal American would invoke a "Paul Revere moment", but Obama and the rest of the Democrat hierarchs --out of their sheer puppy love for socialism, and even communism-- and one and two other morons --out of their crass stupidity-- will invoke a "Sputinik moment".

Alfredo Gonzalez of CA 11:46PM January 27, 2011

It's an epidemic. Everyday you wake up and read about someone else who's had a "Sputnik moment." Thomas Friedman may have been the first (September 2009); an incubatory year later and the number of its victims mounts. In December of 2010 alone, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Senator John Kerry, former Assistant Secretary of Education Chester Finn, and the president himself all experienced a "Sputnik moment."
Fear is the one common trigger of the recent Sputnik moment outbreak. Fear of being bettered educationally, economically, technologically -- the range of fears is varied, but the source of these fears is not. It's always traceable to China.
See post, The 'Sputnik Moment' Epidemic: Is China Our New Russia? at ChinaMusings.com.

dan of MA 12:41PM January 27, 2011

Now this is admission to two close guarded secrets; admiration of Communism and Collectivism and deficit as high as 'Sputnik" orbit!
USA will "fly", may be longer then 21 days, crushing down by gravity of useless paper or depart from Earth like StarTrek next generation - "Pigs in Space": watch Muppet Show for details. Fuzzy Bear would say heya, heya heya!
There is also too much VOODU in this SOTU prayer. Amen! This speech is what Jorgenson of New England Wire and Cable said in “Other People’s Money”. I opt to support “Larry the Liquidator” – Garfield, to shut down very inefficient part in economy – Government. I want to make money and this, makes me morally superior to fulfill my dream of Happiness; not by Government, with Government but by individual like me that is the part indispensable in creation of wealth. All I can say to “Big brother” is: Get a hell out of the way.
There are pillars of economic wisdom, established by Ludwig von Mises of Austria, no, no not by Arnold the Barbarian, but by pure reason and historical analysis.
First – Freedom and unalienable rights (Constitution is not fetish, it is for Government only “born” from will of people therefore having not “rights” or superiority because it is a servant, not a slave, to people period.
Second – sound money, medium of exchange that Governments can not forge – GOLD,
Third – judicial system based on principles of Constitution, not by political appointments,
Forth – army to defend all what I said above,
With that, private enterprise will prosper and all will be better off. Do not make this Earth like prison and say how wonderful it is. We are bound to it by gravity but freedom has no binderies.
In 1961 it was still possible to say by Democratic President elect JFK:
“ Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty”.
“Quo Vadis” Obama?

Paul J. Gagalka 11:14AM January 26, 2011

The Sputnik moment was cold war
Between Russia and the U.S.
Losing did make the U.S. sore.
The name of the game was success.
Today, U.S. adversaries
Have learned new ways to play the game.
Don't let the U.S. ever seize
Any moment with gotcha name.
Instead just let the U.S. sink,
Pulled down by debt and other woes.
Just sit back with a nod and wink
As U.S. gasps in its last throes.
No Sputnik moment epilogue,
What's Chinese for the boiling frog?

Ima Ryma of IL 3:31AM January 26, 2011