Candidates Invited to Science Debate

In December I reported on plans to invite the candidates to a Science Debate. An invitation has now been sent to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Mike Huckabee to participate in a debate proposed for April 18. The invitation provides the following description of the debate:

The debate may include such policy issues as: American economic competitiveness and support for scientific research; policy approaches to climate change; clean energy; the healthcare crisis; science education and technology in schools; scientific integrity; GM agriculture; transportation infrastructure; immigration; the genome; data privacy; intellectual property; pandemic diseases; the health of the oceans; water resources; stem cells; conservation and species loss; population; the space program, and others.

This is a policy debate. It is not intended to be a science quiz. Nor are we interested in state-level battles such as the evolution versus creationism/ID debate. Our goal is to find out how aware candidates are of America’s major science and technology problems and opportunities, and how they propose to offer the kind of visionary leadership and policy solutions that will tackle those challenges and ensure America’s place as the most scientifically and technologically advanced nation on earth. This is your opportunity to demonstrate that you are such a leader.

It would be fascinating to see the candidates discuss such issues but, considering the current campaign calender, I doubt it will occur. Perhaps the organizers could convince the sponsors of some of the debates between the Republican and Democratic nominees to include some of these topics. If the Democratic race doesn’t go all the way to the convention, there could also be a period this spring and summer before the conventions when the presumptive nominees might be more open to unconventional public appearances such as a debate of this nature.

1 Comment

  1. 1
    MsJoanne says:

    I doubt this would ever happen. McCain couldn’t even figure out what his position was on things let alone what those things actually were. This would be too much like a test, no matter how they look at it, and Huck and McCain would fail with flying colors.

    Of course, half of America would probably appreciate that and say HECK, TESTS SUCK! GOOD ON THEM!

1 Trackbacks

Leave a comment