Out on the stump, President Bush and Democratic rival Sen. John F. Kerry don't talk much about technology issues, possibly because the discussion may be too arcane for the average voter to grasp -- or care about. "You can't reach Americans and inspire them to come out and vote for you when you talk about interpretations of court rulings in the 1996 Telecom Act," observed Declan McCullagh, chief political correspondent at online technology journal Cnet.com.

	This is one in an occasional series of articles leading up to November's election about economic issues being put forth by President Bush and Democratic candidate John Kerry.

Still, topics that might normally be a snooze to the average voter -- such as the candidates' positions on copyright policy, computer encryption products and special visas for foreign tech workers -- are being monitored closely by Wall Street, Silicon Valley and just about every tech policy hawk. And what they are noticing is that Kerry and Bush really don't differ much on the importance of technology and how to go about supporting it.

"At the end of the day, they are pretty much saying the same thing," said Harris Miller, president of the Washington, D.C.-based trade group the Information Technology Association of America. "There are few differences in terms of policy issues. They are just trying to spin it differently."

The differences are indeed murky. For example, Bush has said he wants to bring affordable broadband available to every American home by 2007. Kerry has echoed that pledge and tried to up the ante by vowing to have first responders -- firefighters and other emergency workers -- wired to the Internet a year earlier, in 2006.

Both frequently tout the importance of funneling money to support cutting edge research, such as nanotechnology; are practically identical on making the research and development tax credit permanent -- Bush wants it set in stone immediately, while Kerry has said he plans on extending for at least another four years; and want to boost math and science education.

Their biggest divergence, McCullagh said, comes in the candidates' choice to head the Federal Communications Commission -- a key appointment that could affect major business issues for years to come.

If Bush is re-elected, he's expected to stick with current chairman and fellow Republican Michael Powell, McCullagh said. Powell supports free-market solutions, believing that most telecommunications laws are outdated and that Web-based services shouldn't be regulated.

Kerry is expected to push for Democrat and FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, who has called for regulating Internet Service Providers such as Yahoo! and America Online and taxing their users. He also has called for regulating Voice-over-Internet-Protocol, a way to provide phone service via the Web.

The tech community welcomes Bush's stance against Internet taxes and worries about Copps' proclivity toward stronger regulations, McCullagh said.

Not that Kerry scores poorly with the tech community. The Information Technology Industry Council, another Washington, D.C.-based tech trade group made up of leading hardware and software firms including Sun Microsystems and Intel Corp., gave the Massachusetts senator a lifetime rating of 83 percent for votes considered favorable to the tech industry. The Bush administration isn't rated.

While the trade group will not comment on either candidate's platform, at least one high-powered member has expressed annoyance with the candidates' silence on tech issues.

Intel Chief Executive Officer Craig Barrett told a crowd of tech workers earlier this week that the country is losing its global competitive edge and that Bush and Kerry, in their debates, virtually ignored the country's declining tech infrastructure.

Ultimately, tech wonks say, it is not who is president but who is in the majority in Congress and at the helm of the FCC. And what most tech proponents want, said the trade association's Miller, is a laissez-faire approach from government. "The Internet hippocratic oath is 'First, do no harm,' " he said.