About that “overhead projector”

At the debate tonight, Senator John McCain tried to make hay out of an earmark requested by his opponent, Senator Barrack Obama:

He voted for nearly a billion dollars in pork barrel earmark projects, including, by the way, $3 million for an overhead projector at a planetarium in Chicago, Illinois

Kinda makes it sound like Sen. Obama wanted $3 million for one of those things you remember from boring sociology lectures, where the prof dragged slide after acetate slide across the glass of a long-necked, dimly-lit contraption. I mean, isn’t that what an overhead projector is?

Not so much, at least, not in a planetarium. You see, a planetarium shows images by projecting up on the dome… you know, overhead. If you don’t have a projector, you pretty much don’t have a planetarium. According to Sen. Obama’s office:

The projection equipment in this theater is 40 years old, and is no longer supported with parts or service by the manufacturer

(quoted at PolitiFact)

The projector was for the Adler Planetarium and Space Museum, which like most museums does an awful lot of educational outreach. So the question becomes: Why doesn’t John McCain support science education? Doesn’t he love America’s children? Doesn’t he want them to compete in the 21st century? Or does he dislike Adler Planetarium because they teach the newfangled stuff like heliocentrism?