U.S. Election 2008: Candidates on innovation

From the LA Times:

Science Debate 2008 -- an effort spearheaded by half a dozen voters concerned about the state of American science -- posed 14 questions to the major parties' presidential candidates, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.

The queries were culled from more than 3,400 suggestions offered by 38,000 contributors, including Nobel laureates, university presidents, government officials and professional organizations.

Obama submitted his responses in August, and McCain answered this week. Excerpts are printed below, with more to come next Saturday. The candidates' complete replies are online at www.sciencedebate2008.com.

Of the 4 questions presented in the article - the one that interested me most was about innovation:

What policies will you support to ensure that America remains the world leader in innovation? 

Obama: My administration will increase funding for basic research in physical and life sciences, mathematics, and engineering at a rate that would double basic research budgets over the next decade. We will increase research grants for early career researchers to keep young scientists entering these fields. We will increase support for high-risk, high-payoff research portfolios at our science agencies. And we will invest in the breakthrough research we need to meet our energy challenges and to transform our defense programs.

McCain: My policies will provide broad pools of capital, low taxes and incentives for research in America, a commitment to a skilled and educated workforce, and a dedication to opening markets around the globe. I am committed to streamlining burdensome regulations and effectively protecting American intellectual property in the United States and around the globe.

The full response to that question (and others) is available here.  Obama is all about education and research, while McCain is about creating an environment for entrepreneurship.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has been monitoring federal science and engineering R&D funding since 1972.  They released a report last month, which shows that this funding "failed to outpace inflation for the second year in a row".  This is the first time this has ever happened in the 36 years that they have been doing this analysis.  And this isn't just NSF - the dataset includes: Health and Human Services (which includes NIH, National Institutes for Health), Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Energy (DOE), NASA, and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

This passage stuck out to me because one of McCain's staffers said he invented the Blackberry recently:

Under my guiding hand, Congress developed a wireless spectrum policy that spurred the rapid rise of mobile phones and Wi-Fi technology that enables Americans to surf the web while sitting at a coffee shop, airport lounge, or public park.