Holman Jenkins has an op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal in which he promotes private spaceflight development: How Humanity Will Survive - WSJ.com - Jan.2.07. (I believe this link is subscription only. I'll keep an eye out in case it is reprinted in an open publication.) After discussing the encouraging progress at Bigelow and SpaceX, he notes Rocketplane Kistler's failure to raise enough funding for its project. He says,

One reason for Rocketplane's failure was reportedly investor skepticism about whether NASA, with its cost-plus mentality and pork-barreling Congressional oversight, really wants to encourage a cheap private alternative.

That's a cloud that will hang over the entire human spaceflight industry as long as NASA insists on spending taxpayer money on the in-house, do-it-all approach that has produced little real progress since Apollo. The next president should turn NASA into a buyer of services rather than a producer of them, much as the government once used mail contracts to boost the early commercial aviation industry. Only by breaking the classic NASA mold can we speed up a permanent human presence in space, thus ensuring humanity's long-term survival.

[Update: As Rand Sam says, kudos go to space advocate Charles Lurio, who is cited in the essay, for "beating the drum for rationalizing space policy for years".]
===
The Chair Force Engineer also offers some suggestions for the space agency: A New Years' Resolution for NASA - CFE - Dec.31.07.