ScienceDebate 2008 (not quite)

Yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science repesentatives of the Clinton and Obama campaigns faced off in a debate about science. Thomas Kalil, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, represented Clinton. Alec Ross, Executive Vice President, External Affairs, of One Economy Corporation, represented Obama.

Here's how Daniel Engber described it in Slate:

In this battle of the campaign stereotypes, Hillary came out the clear winner. Kalil began with a series of charts depicting the decline of American research funding. Then he laid out Clinton's plan to double funding for the NIH, the NSF, the NIST, and the research arms of the DOD and DOE. She'd reverse the ban on embryonic stem cell research, triple the size of graduate research fellowships, push for the creation of an ARPA-E, and restore the authority of the presidential science advisor. And this was just “version 1.0” of her agenda. The audience seemed appreciative – if not deeply moved – by the details.

Ross responded by saying that Obama's plan is even more “detailed” than Clinton's, “both in terms of breadth and in terms of detail.” He then invited us – repeatedly – to visit www.BarackObama.com where we'd see just how often they “really get into the weeds on an issue.” Those without laptops learned only that Obama planned to double federal research funding, spend $150 billion on biofuels, and appoint a national Chief Technology Officer.

ScienceDebate 2008 also has links to coverage of the event from CQ Politics, Discover, Agence France Presse, and Science.

UPDATE (noon): Sheril Kirshenbaum has more details at The Intersection.