Science and politics

I am very certain of who I will vote for in just under a month. A lot of my decision rests with my position in life. Currently as an assistant professor, I am fighting what I feel is an up hill battle - and possibly one that I can't win. There is only so much money out there for scientific research. And there is little room for the new fighters. Currently, a researcher receives their first NIH grant around age 40. If you are 30 when you become an asst professor (or even 35), this won't happen before you have to submit your tenure portfolio (which is basically just a list of your accomplishments as an independent researcher that your peers and superiors use to decide if you are worthy of tenure). I would really like to get tenure. Thus, it's critically important that the next president increase funding for science. And in fact, one of the candidates would like to support the new and budding researchers out there, like me. If you are curious about the candidates opinions on science issues, take a look at Science Debate 2008.