Courtesy of Richard Massey (who just sent this link round by email), here is President Obama holding an Astronomy Night at the White House. The man is always a hypnotic orator – but hearing him tell a crowd of schoolkids how Galileo changed the world is just magical. Love it.
He looks through a telescope at a double double star that is one hundred sixty light years from Earth. (Epsilon Lyrae I think). Definitely a far-sighted politician.
Mind you, Gordon Brown’s February Oxford speech was pretty damn good too. (Here is my post on that). Maybe I am a sucker for the purple words, and should concentrate on the money ?
The e-Astronomer 
Gets really scary when you find yourself agreeing with David Willetts, though:
(http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=408581&c=2 )
If you watch the video carefully, I think you will notice that neither Barack Obama nor Michelle could really make out what they were looking at! As someone comments on the YouTube page, perhaps they should have chosen something more obvious, like Jupiter!
Great speech though!
Anyone for “Astronomy Night at 10 Downing Street”?