President Bush and Democratic rival John Kerry offered ideas Thursday to push the United States to the cutting edge on technology, with the hope of securing crucial political support in Silicon Valley and other high-tech regions.
Kerry, noting that the Internet was started with help from research in his home state of Massachusetts, said the United States needs a president who understands the needs of the high-tech industry.
"It"s not a bubble; it is a breakthrough that will continue to lift our economy and our lives,"" the senator told an audience in the heart of Silicon Valley.
The Democratic challenger complained that the United States is losing its technological edge because of ``neglect and hostility"" under Bush"s leadership, with the disappearance of 800,000 high-tech jobs and the nation"s drop from 4th to 10th in the percentage of people using broadband. He said countries such as South Korea and Japan are now deploying networks that are 20-50 times faster than what is available in the United States.
Bush stressed the importance of technology in improving the economy and the lives of Americans in a speech at the Commerce Department where he repeated his goal of broadband access everywhere in the United States by 2007.