Science Advocates Should Start Advocating About the Transition

October 20th, 2008

Posted by: admin

The Washington Post reports today on the efforts each campaign has made to deal with the Presidential transition – a period that looks like a long period, but rarely are that many appointments made by the time the new President is inauguration.  The Post article follows up another piece that ran in Sunday’s edition.  Both campaigns have picked advisers for the transition, men with past governmental experience.  The Obama campaign has selected John Podesta, current head of the Center for American Progress and former chief of staff during the Clinton Administration.  The McCain campaign will rely on John Lehman, a former Secretary of the Navy and member of the 9/11 Commission.

The point worth noting is the absence of science or technology positions in the Post’s reporting.  Given the series of reports released by The National Academies on the need to make these appointments quickly, and at least one campaign’s indication that they’d read the latest report, this momentum should be seized.  Science and technology advocates should pause for a moment in beating their heads against the wall over the budget and target the campaigns on taking the science and technology appointments seriously and acting quickly.

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