Anyone know this short story and author? I think I may have read it in Analog. It goes like this:there is this guy who is either a scientist or politician. He is depressed because of the short-sightness of the American people when it comes to space exploration. The character is somehow involved in the fight to keep the space program funded and he feels he is losing the battle. The character is at a party when he is approached by a stranger. The stranger convinces the scientist that he is a time traveller. the stranger came back to tell the scientist that his efforts were not in vain and that humans had reached the stars. It ends with the scientist saying something like , “I knew America would raise to the occasion and continue to explore”. The stranger says " I never said it was America." I think it was written about the time of the Challenger disaster. May have been written by Eric Iverson (aka Harry Turtledove). I was thinking about this story when I heard people complaining about the latest proposal to head for Mars.
I don’t recognize the story, but I’ve read most of Turtledove’s work going back for years and it doesn’t sound like any of his I remember.
I’m not saying for sure it was Turtledove but I think it was him or someone else who was a frequent contributor to Analog in the mid to late 80’s. I don’t know how old you are but if you remember when Turtledove wrote under the name Eric G. Iverson you might recall his stories were a lot different. He mostly wrote short stories and I seem to recall that they weren’t all alternate history like he does now(mostly).
I’m disappointed. Some doper usually comes up with the answer within 5 minutes 
Old enough to remember when the Dune and Foundation trilogies only had three books.
I don’t suppose it could have been Larry Niven? Never mind. I got nothin’.
I’m posting one last time in a desparate attempt to get people to read this thread and give me an answer. Back to page 1. 
My last chance, maybe it was all a dream.