We're sorry we didn't attempt to "live-blog" this debate (video forthcoming at the link) between Kurt E. Yeager _{(McCain California Energy Security Coalition)} and Daniel M. Kammen _{(Senior Advisor on Energy & Environmental Policy for Barack Obama)}.

Until the video comes out, we can content ourselves with the IHT's overview. This seems to sum up the differences:

But Obama looks to encourage basic research with infusions of federal cash. McCain says easing regulatory and tax burdens will encourage private spending on research. (Experts say industry now tends to focus on near-term applications, while government finances more basic research that has greater breakthrough potential.)

Obama has proposed doubling federal financing for basic research in physics, life sciences, mathematics and engineering over 10 years. He has promised to review export rules he calls outdated and sees as having "unduly hampered the competitiveness of the domestic aerospace industry."

By contrast, even before the current economic crisis, McCain proposed freezing, at least initially, almost all discretionary federal spending -- a budget category that includes federal research efforts.

And he makes hay on the stump by citing, as an example of wasted money, a study of the DNA of grizzly bears in Montana, wondering aloud why anyone would think bears were involved in paternity suits or criminal activity. (In fact, the project, undertaken by the United States Geological Survey, intended to find ways of estimating the region's population of grizzlies, endangered in the lower 48 states.)

Or, of course, one can spend time chuckling over the "Obama's Mother Had A Genesis Device" theory. An oldie but goodie.