The Sputnik moment for clean energy has not passed, and if reelected, President Obama may have another opportunity to do a big thing or two.

At what point will the president tell the speaker of the House of Representatives that teacher appreciation is vital to the long-term economic health of this country? That point ought to be now.

Why do we continue to funnel money into programs like additional gas wells in the New York State watershed instead of embracing newer, cleaner programs like wind and solar?

Over the past two decades, I fear that we have reached a tipping point, where our top scientists are spending a larger and larger portion of their time raising funds and less and less time devoted to science.

Around the world, food prices are surging, with protests breaking out across Northern Africa. And against this backdrop, the scourge of malnutrition continues to ravage more than one billion people.

The president sought to galvanize the nation around a single vision by using a metaphor from a time when the United States was losing the race to space. But is this really America's "Sputnik moment"?

Obama is likely to lean more heavily on "reaching out" to Republicans. He knows full well that if anything legislative is going to get done in the next two years, Republicans are going to have to be on board.

While Obama may indeed be right about America being in serious danger of falling behind on a worldwide scale, this Sputnik moment simply doesn't have a Sputnik. There is no one overarching threat.