McCain and Obama get advice on science

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 face, but we know that those where scientific knowledge is directly relevant involve making difficult choices on how to respond to climate change, whether and how to fund embryonic stem cell research, what level of federal funding is required to ensure continued U.S. leadership in science and technology, how to enforce the Endangered Species Act, and a host of others.¹

In that context, it's useful to know how McCain and Obama have selected advisers on science. Here's how Jeffrey Mervise describes it in today's Science:

It's no surprise that the politically active Varmus, the 1989 medicine Nobelist and former director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), is familiar with Obama's statements on funding basic research: He helped write many of them as chair of a 40-plus-member committee of prominent researchers and educators who are advising the freshman senator from Illinois on science. The panel prepared the candidate's 6000-word response last month to 14 questions posed by a coalition of scientific organizations called Science Debate 2008 (ScienceDebate2008.org). Varmus won't say how much the answers were altered by campaign officials but allows that "we're very pleased with it. His commitment to science is absolutely apparent."

Last week, Obama's Republican opponent, Senator John McCain (AZ), provided equally lengthy answers to the same set of questions. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who serves as the candidate's point man on many domestic policy issues, including science, health, energy, and the environment, says McCain has contacted experts on issues such as climate, space, and "science in general" but has "no formal structure" for soliciting advice. An economist and former head of the Congressional Budget Office under President George W. Bush, Holtz-Eakin says McCain relies instead on the knowledge acquired during his 26 years in Congress, including 6 years as chair of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.

The way the answers were prepared reflects the different management styles of the two campaigns. "Obama has thousands of advisers, and McCain has two guys and a dog," cracks one academic lobbyist who requested anonymity because his organization tries to maintain ties with both camps.