As tonight’s second, town hall-style debate approaches – an event that some see as Republican Sen. John McCain’s best chance to turn back a recent surge in the race from Democratic Sen. Barack Obama – many IT insiders may find themselves in the estimated 4 percent of undecided voters.

 

Many headline-grabbing news items – including the economic crisis, wars in Iraq and on terror and healthcare – are expected to determine those voters’ minds.

 

Officials with the Washington, D.C.-based Telecommunications Industry Association (News - Alert), a lobbyist group, also are putting out what the group sees – based on the candidates’ own Web sites, the association says – as major differences between Obama and McCain on its own area of expertise: the telecom space.

 

According to the association, both candidates have detailed policy platforms for technology.

 

Generally speaking, the association says, McCain’s IT platform is based on guiding principles to: encourage investment in innovation; champion open and fair trade; reform intellectual property protection; keep the Internet and entrepreneurs free of unnecessary regulation; and ensure a fully connected citizenry.

 

By comparison, Obama’s principles seek to: ensure an open Internet; create a transparent and connected democracy; encourage a modern communications infrastructure; improve America's competitiveness and commitment to science research; prepare children for a 21st century economy; and employ science and technology to solve the nation's most pressing problems.

 

In terms of tax credits, the association says, Obama is seeking to make permanent the so-called “R&D,” or “research and development” tax credit, so that companies can rely on it when making decisions to invest in domestic R&D over multi-year timeframes. McCain is calling for the establishment of a permanent R&D tax credit equal to 10 percent of wages spent on R&D.

 

The candidates also differ sharply on their tax plans, the association says.

 

Obama is seeking to repeal tax breaks and loopholes that reward corporations that retain their earnings overseas, and use those savings to lower corporate tax rates for companies that expand or start operations in the United States. The Illinois senator also said he would reform deferral provisions, ending the incentive for companies to ship jobs overseas and closing the offshore pension loophole.

 

McCain said he would lower the corporate tax rate to 25 percent to retain investment in U.S. technologies and oppose higher taxes on wireless services.

 

Whereas McCain opposes so-called “net-neutrality,” Obama says he supports the principle, and that network providers should not be allowed to charge fees to privilege the content or applications of some Web sites and Internet applications over others.

 

The candidates also differ in how they would “unleash” the power of the wireless space, the association says.

 

McCain says he would force the federal government to auction inefficiently used wireless spectrum to companies that would use it to provide high-speed Internet service options to millions of Americans. Obama said he would call for a review of existing wireless spectrum uses, and then create incentives for more efficient and more imaginative use of government spectrum, as well as new standards for commercial spectrum to bring affordable broadband to rural communities that previously lacked it.