Mr. I hate earmarks and will freeze government spending wants to kick NASA 2 billion.

[AlCzervik]

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Laura Meckler reports from Melbourne, Fla., on the presidential race.

Sen. John McCain came to the space coast today and promised $2 billion to help NASA transition from the space shuttle to a new space vehicle.

“I’ve always been a strong supporter of manned space flight and NASA,” he said in a community that is home to many in the field. “If I’m elected president I won’t cut NASA funds like Sen. Obama.” McCain aides noted that Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, had promised to pay for education programs by delaying the Constellation space program, which is meant to fill the gap to the next space vehicle, only to backtrack later.

“My friends, we just saw the Chinese. We saw them in space,” McCain told an afternoon rally of about 2,000 people. “We’ve got competition. We’ve got to stay ahead. We will be the first nation to Mars.”

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UPDATE: A Florida-based Obama spokeswoman, Adrianne Marsh, said that Obama committed in August to the needed $2 billion for the Constellation program. The campaign, she said, found other ways to pay for the education program. And she said that McCain’s embrace of the program now is not trustworthy given his promises to freeze domestic spending.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/