Obama Calls for 'Sputnik Moment': 4 Possible Reasons Why

(Dec. 6) -- The race is on, again.

President Barack Obama has declared that America is facing a new "Sputnik moment." Speaking at Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem, N.C., today, Obama compared the nation's 1957 wake-up call following the Soviet Union's launch of the Sputnik satellite to the current dismal state of American education and how it will impact the nation's economic future.

"In this race for the future, American is in danger of falling behind," Obama said. "If this is truly going to be our Sputnik moment, we need a commitment to innovation we haven't seen since President Kennedy challenged us to go to the moon."

The president argued that the country needs to invest heavily in "education and innovation and infrastructure." But was there, as was the case with Sputnik, a specific event that the president noticed that might have heralded this new moment of national challenge? Surge Desk has a few contenders.

1. Educational ranking
In his speech, Obama pointed out that in recent years, the United States has gone from first place to ninth in terms of nations with the highest proportion of residents with college degrees. Further alarming, America now ranks 18th of 24 industrialized countries in terms of students who have completed high school.

2. China
A recent report by the Conference Board found that China will overtake the United States as the world's largest economy in just two years, and that by the year 2020, China's economy could be half again as big as America's, the Telegraph reported. It was for this reason that Obama, in his speech today, said he wanted to see a return to a time when products bore the seal that read "Made in America."

3. Manufacturing decline
While the number of manufacturing jobs in the United States has risen slightly over the past few months, the overall trend is not positive. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the country has seen those jobs disappear at an alarming rate since the recession of 2001.

4. The deficit
Though the president's bipartisan debt commission failed to muster complete consensus on what precise measures need to be taken to turn back the nation's staggering $1.294 trillion deficit, the subject remains front and center when it comes to securing what Obama calls "a new and stronger foundation for economic growth." For the better part of 2010, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has been issue a series of warnings about the deficit, arguing that Americans must face the prospect of higher taxes and changes to entitlements like Social Security and Medicare, if the country is ever to pay down its debt.

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