Time for another clarion call

In the 1960's, President Kennedy communicated his vision for America to successfully land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth before the end of the decade.  That call and challenge unleashed the American pioneer and competitive spirit.  With that clarion call,  many Americans entered our engineering programs and became direct or indirect contributors to our space program.  We were going to beat the Russians to the Moon, no matter what.  

Fifty years later, most of those engineers have either retired or passed away.  Now, China and India produce 7 engineers for every 1 that our country graduates.

We need a President with the vision and boldness to exhort: "we as a nation will free itself from the twin evils of foreign oil and capital by 2020 through living within our means, shared sacrifice, and unleashing our innovative spirit to develop new technologies to fuel transportation."  With that, we need a new call for engineers and scientists to help us to accomplish this.

That is leadership and that is what we desperately need.  Americans need to hear that encouragement and be part of that vision.