Presidential Candidates' Policies on Technology and Innovation – Breakdown

Barack Obama and John McCain both say they will support
technological innovation, particularly in the area of renenwable
energy, if elected president.

However, befitting the differences in the Republican and
Democratic parties, the candidates have differing views as to what that
support should look like. 

The following breakdown is taken from a new report produced by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, called "Comparing the Candidates’ Technology and Innovation Policies."

The general philosophies of the two candidates towards
technology and innovation policies are summed up in the following
points.

Barack Obama:

• Engage government as an active partner with private industry in setting a technology and innovation agenda.
• Significantly
  increase federal funding for scientific research and development
  activities, while making the R&D tax credit permanent. 
• Expand activities of federal agencies in support of innovation and create new organizational structures if necessary.
• Intervene
  in shaping policies and regulations in the event of market failures
  (such as nationwide access to broadband Internet), though the private
  sector remains the primary source of innovation. 
• Connect all citizens with each other and with the government to engage them fully in solving commonly-shared challenges.
• Aggressively deploy technology to open up the federal government and provide increased transparency to citizens. 
• Congress should get involved in writing rules for the Internet. 
• Stresses technology and innovation as an overarching theme in his campaign.

John McCain: 

• Promote innovation largely through tax incentives that create risk capital which encourages private investment. 
• Support corporate R&D through expanded R&D tax credits; don’t commit substantially-increased federal funds to R&D. 
• Leverage
  and empower existing science and techonolgy (S&T) programs,
  agencies, and structures; minimize creation of new federal
  bureaucracies or institutions. 
• Allow the marketplace to
  drive innovation and only have the government intervene in the most
  extreme instances of market failure. 
• Include broader issues like immigration, free trade, and capital gains as part of his innovation agenda. 
• Does not stress technology and innovation as an overarching theme in his campaign. 
• Congress should not get involved in writing rules for the Internet.