victory in that race to space, yeah, they won, but they also incurred so much debt at the time that it resulted in the inevitable collapse of the soviet union. so i listen to that sputnik moment talk over and over again, and i think no, we don't need one of those. you know what we need is a spud nut moment. >> to translate from alaskan to american what we think we may have just heard, i'm joined now by david frum, former special assistant and speechwriter for president george w. bush. you can find him at frumforum.com. david, we need a republican for this. when she starts talking that way, we just think there's something we don't get about this. can you help us at all? what is it that -- what is a spudnik? a spud -- >> what you're seeing there is the sight of a terrible lost opportunity. and you're seeing people like me across the country taking our foreheads and banging them against the doorjamb. look, the president delivered quite a weak state of the union.