I stumbled across an interested report titled Comparing the Candidates’ Technology & Innovation Policies written by The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a non-partisan research and educational institute whose mission is to formulate and promote public policies to advance technological innovation and productivity internationally, in Washington, and in the states.  The report goes through issue by issue and compares the views of John McCain and Barack Obama on various matters that impact technology and innovation, from tax policy to Patent Office policy to communications policy and more.

To give you a flavor, here is the general overview of how McCain and Obama would handle technology and innovation as president:

The overall orientation of John McCain’s innovation policy agenda is to focus on proposals for creating a favorable environment for private sector innovation through a clear and less burdensome tax code, limited government regulation, and a strong trade, immigration, and competitiveness agenda. McCain places more emphasis on spurring research and development (R&D) through the tax code than on spurring R&D through public expenditures. In other words, McCain’s policy seeks to foster an environment for private sector investment in R&D and innovation.

Barack Obama’s approach to technology and innovation policy engages the government as an active partner alongside industry in setting a national technology and innovation agenda. More than McCain, Obama would substantially increase government funding for science and technology R&D, including doubling the current level of federal R&D funding for basic research and targeting additional funding towards specific initiatives, such as $150B for clean energy programs and $50B for health information technology. Whereas a McCain Administration would seek to leverage existing federal agencies tasked with innovation activity, such as the Manufacturing Extension Program (MEP) within the Department of Commerce, and resist creating new bureaucracies, an Obama Administration would be more willing to reevaluate the current federal innovation infrastructure and reorganize it as necessary, such as through the creation of a new Advanced Manufacturing Fund.

McCain, believing that innovation is fueled primarily by risk capital, skilled workers, incentives for entrepreneurs, a light regulatory framework, and open access to markets, would place most emphasis for innovation on the marketplace, and be less focused than Obama on having government take a very active role in proactively establishing and aggressively funding a national innovation and R&D agenda. Obama’s policies recognize the private sector as the central source of economic growth and prosperity and appreciate the need to create a favorable regulatory, tax, and investment climate for it, but also affirm that government can play a proactive and constructive role in helping the private sector commercialize its innovations.

Fairly typical of what you would expect no doubt, as a Republican McCain favors creation of an environment in which industry can thrive, and as a Democrat Obama favors more government involvement in leading the charge to foster new technologies and innovation.  Aside from the Bay-Dole Act, which gave Universities the right to keep the patent rights for the inventions they create, I don’t think that the government ought to be to involved.  Funding is one thing, but more than that is not something I want to see personally.  Creating an environment for innovation and technology sounds good, but sorting out the candidates based on general statements about what they would do to spur technology and innovation is going to be somewhat difficult.  After all, you are not likely to hear one of the candidates say technology and innovation is good and the other say that it is bad.  Both seem to understand that it is something that will lead to a better America.

To the extent you are going to be a one-issue technology/innovation voter you are probably going to have to dig a little deeper, and it may well wind up being taxes that makes the decision for you.  Barack Obama and his campaign can continue to dump on McCain for saying that the economy is fundamentally strong, and explain that he is out of touch with Americans for saying such a thing.  So I guess that would have to mean that Obama thinks the economy is fundamentally not strong, or perhaps even weak.  I don’t see it that way personally, but lets assume the economy is not strong and perhaps even fundamentally weak.  How then is it possible that raising taxes on corporations is going to make an economy better off?

So as to not get to far afield let me return to the ITIF report.  Aside from from mentioning the big ticket tax policy items that the popular media had covered, the report points out that Obama supports making the current R&D tax credit permanent without expansion, but McCain would make the R&D tax credit permanent, and extend it beyond the current level by calculating a company’s R&D tax credit as an amount equal to 10 percent of the wages that the company spends on R&D in the United States.  So if you can get past the fact that a Republican just wants to cut taxes more you see that what McCain would do is not only make the R&D credit permanent but would also incentivise the additional hiring of high paid skilled workers, something that I think our economy could really use.

At the end of the day whether McCain or Obama would be better for innovation is debatable I suppose.  Now if I could only look into a crystal ball and see who President McCain or President Obama would appoint to be the next Director of the Patent Office… that would make things a whole lot clearer!