Thursday, 14 February 2008

science and presidential election



Science and the Presidential Election

The the tedious US Presidential Election in full swing right now with

the primaries and caucuses for each party, science continues to take a

back seat in terms of importance. I'll have more to say on this later,

but for now, it might be useful to see if there's anything we can

infer regarding each candidate's view on science. The Jan. 4th 2008

issue of Science has a summary for the leading candidates in each

party regarding their views of science, and possible science policy.

Hillary Clinton turns out to have the most detailed and comprehensive

policy on science, which isn't surprising since she probably got the

same network of advisers that Bill Clinton had. Still, she has stated

that the Presidential Science Adviser will report directly to her, and

not through several layers of commands the way George Bush currently

has it.

Anyhow, you might want to pick up this issue of Science. This might be

one of the few places that have such a concise description of the

candidates' views on science and science policy. It is also why we

should have a presidential debate on just science.


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