The final debate: Don't expect Obama and McCain to spar over net neutrality

When John McCain and Barack Obama take the stage tonight for the final debate before the election, I expect to hear plenty about the economy, domestic issues and foreign policy. What I don’t expect to hear about is net neutrality, wireless spectrum or broadband.

In tech circles, these are important topics, but increasingly they’re placed on the back burner – way in the back – inside the Beltway. Last month, the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation issued a report that points out, among other things, that technological “innovation has been responsible for about 80 percent of the growth in the American economy since World War II.” And seeing how the U.S. economy is pretty much tanking these days, one might think that Washington would turn to Silicon Valley for some ideas on how to spark growth.

The foundation’s report (available as a PDF) goes into detail about the policies of both candidates on a variety of issues, ranging from broadband and R&D investment and to telecommunications and digital privacy. It's a thorough report, but can be a tough read. For something lighter - and a bit more fun - I would steer you toward Wired's candidate scorecard, which applies letter grades to the candidates on various technology issues.

Take, for example, the issue of net neutrality. Wired says the issue is whether government should regulate the open pipes of broadband and forbid the telcos of imposing their own policies related to the types of content that can move over their Internet pipes. McCain supports the idea that support for "freedom of access to content" should be voluntary. Obama, on the other hand, supports the idea of network neutrality as a way of preserving open competition on the Internet. On the matter of network neutrality, Wired gives Obama an "A" and McCain a "D."

The candidates' technology plans are available on the official websites. McCain's can be found here. Obama's is available here.