John McCain has sent in the answers to the 14 questions posed by SEA and a group of scientific organizations! Now both Obama and McCain have put their cards on the table and there are clear differences. Now get to work comparing McCain and Obama. At an initial glance I found one minor error in McCain’s answer. He claimed, “I will work to fill early in my Administration both the position of Science Adviser and at least four assistant directors within OSTP (Office of Science and Technology Policy).” He clearly meant 4 Associate Director positions, the Senate confirmed positions at OSTP. But on the scale of mistakes that he could have made, this is minor. It is good to see that he is at least dedicated to having a science advisor, but like Obama has not committed to having one at the cabinet level.

Another clear difference between the two is in science funding. “I am committed to reinvigorating America’s commitment to basic research, and will ensure my administration funds research activities accordingly. I have supported increased funding at DOE, NSF, and NIH for years and will continue to do so.” This is in comparison to Obama’s unequivocal call for doubling of federal R&D spending to boost our economy. McCain has previously said that he will have a domestic spending freeze in his first year as President, which means another year of flat funding and more real cuts to the nations scientific endeavor. With that said, there is a lot of really good stuff buried in the answers. So dig in and find all the differences and load them up on the SHARP Network and tell me about them so we can highlight them further.