Fourteen questions

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As we all know by now, neither the Republican nor the Democratic candidates for their respective party's nominations accepted invitations to participate in ScienceDebate2008. But that doesn't mean the idea's dead. Far from it. Today the ScienceDebate2008 team released Innovation 2008: 14 Questions the candidates for President should answer about Science & America's Future.

On behalf of the American science and innovation community (see who here), we have submitted these questions to the candidates for President and asked them to do two simple things: A) provide a written response, which we will publish here, and B) discuss these questions in a nationally televised forum.
The 14 questions asked of presidential candidates include the 7 questions asked of congressional candidates. You can find out how your representatives, senators, and their challengers answered the questions by entering your zip code in the Innovation 2008 box at the bottom of the page.

David Goldston had doubts about earlier incarnations of ScienceDebate2008, and his doubts caused me some doubts of my own. But after looking at the 14 questions that have been posted, I am really looking forward to the answers. They will tell us a lot about our next president.1

1Since I'm writing this in July, it's safe to assume that either John McCain or Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States on 20 January 2009.

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TrackBack URL: http://darwin.eeb.uconn.edu/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1669

Over at DailyKos DarkSyde reports on the results of a poll released by Scientists and Engineers for America. All the more reason that John McCain and Barack Obama should heed the call to answer 14 questions put to them... Read More

ScienceDebate2008 didn't happen during the primaries, but the team behind the effort released 14 questions they wanted the candidates to answer a little over a month ago. So far as I know, neither candidate has yet made a formal... Read More

Neither McCain nor Obama agreed to a science debate, but I recently received an e-mail from Shawn Otto suggesting that both have promised to answer the fourteen questions put to them by Innovation 2008.Yesterday there was a report on... Read More

In 2007 universities and colleges in the United States spent just over $49.4 billion in scientific research and development. Of that total, more than 60% ($30.4 billion) came from federal sources. Although total federal support increased by a little... Read More

Last fall a small group of people called for the presidential candidates to a debate focused on issues relevant to science, technology, and innovation. None of the candidates answered that call, but more recently Innovation 2008 issued 14 questions... Read More

A little over two weeks ago Barack Obama answered the fourteen questions put to both candidates by Innovation 2008. Today John McCain has also answered the questions.You can find the complete text of John McCain's answers at the ScienceDebate2008... Read More

Andrew Revkin analyzes the candidate's responses to the question about climate on Dot Earth. Bill Broad summarizes responses to all fourteen questions. John Tierney picks out a few key points at Tierney Lab. In case you don't know Dot... Read More

Here's your chance to vote early. John McCain and Barack Obama have each answered the fourteen questions put to them by ScienceDebate2008. (Here's a side-by-side comparison of their answers.) Now you have a chance to grade McCain and Obama... Read More

The people a president picks as advisers and how (s)he picks them says as much about the type of president (s)he will be as any policy statement, maybe more. We can't predict the specific policy challenges the next president will... Read More

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