Science Debate 2008, currentlyScienceDebate.org, was the beginning of agrassroots campaign to call for a publicdebate in which the candidates for the U.S. presidential election discuss issues relating to the environment, health and medicine, and science and technology policy.
In 2008, the effort was co-chaired byU.S. House representativesVernon J. Ehlers andRush D. Holt, Jr., and the steering committee includesChris Mooney,Matthew Chapman,Arne Carlson,Lawrence Krauss,Sheril Kirshenbaum,John Rennie, andShawn Lawrence Otto.
BothBarack Obama andJohn McCain participated in the initiative, which marked the first time in history the endorsed candidates for president laid out detailed science policies before the election. It became the largest political initiative in the history of American science, and made over 800 million media impressions.[1]
Among the scientific organizations supporting the program were theCarnegie Institution of Washington, theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science, theNational Academy of Sciences, theUnion of Concerned Scientists, theBiophysical Society, and theAssociation for Women in Science.[2] Other supporters included politicians,[3] prominent research universities,Nobel laureates, business institutions, and science media editors.[2]
Science Debate's partners in the debate were the National Academy of Science, the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, the Council on Competitiveness, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Originally, the four top candidates for the 2008 election,Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama,Mike Huckabee, and John McCain, were officially invited to discuss science and technology issues atPhiladelphia'sFranklin Institute on April 18, 2008.[4][5] However, after none of the candidates agreed to participate in the debate,[6][7] a second invitation was sent, proposing a debate atPortland State University on May 2, May 9, or May 16. The moderator was to beDavid Brancaccio, and it was set to air onPBS. Unlike most other debates, the questions were to be provided in advance.[8] Although the candidates did not agree to the two televised debates proposed by Science Debate 2008, both Obama and McCain did participate in an online written version, sciencedebate.org providing detailed responses to the "14 Top Science Questions Facing America," a list suggested by the organization's members, and the Obama answers formed an early basis for the Obama science policy. Several of the earliest supporters of Science Debate later joined Obama administration, including Energy SecretarySteven Chu, NOAA DirectorJane Lubchenco, and Presidential Science AdvisorJohn Holdren.
Science Debate 2008 has received media attention fromMSNBC,[9][10]Science Friday,[11]Wired.com,[12]Earth & Sky,[13] as well as the editors ofScientific American[14] andScience.[15] An editorial inNature cautioned that "the proposed debate can be seen as an attempt by various élite institutions to grab the microphone and set the agenda from the top down"[16] andNature columnist David Goldston stated that "there is no reason to assume that a presidential debate on science matters would be instructive for the public or helpful to scientists."[17]