Could this be a trend?

Lee Iacocca, former Chairman of Chrysler Corporation and old-time Republican, has switched parties, and yesterday endorsed John Kerry for President. Speaking Thursday in the state of California, Mr. Iacocca said he liked Mr. Kerry’s plan to give all Americans a fair shot at a well-paying job. He was an outspoken supporter of Bush in the 2000 election.

“We need a leader who will level with us about how we can adapt to that change and make things change for the better,” Iacocca said.

For Kerry, the key to those changes is billions of dollars in new government support for science and technology, money that could generate millions of new jobs in what he calls “the economy for our future.”

“The focus is not on the next election, but on the next generation,” the Massachusetts senator said. “It’s a plan to let America be America again by tapping the ingenuity and innovation that are at the heart of our character as a people.”

Kerry’s plan provides a bundle of goodies for the high-tech community, including a permanent research and development tax credit, tax incentives for extending and improving broadband services, an end to the capital gains tax for long-term investments in small businesses and a promise of expanded stem cell research.

“If I am president, we will invest more in areas of research that are likely to create the industries and jobs of the future,” he said, “areas like advanced manufacturing, clean energy and nanotechnology that have the potential to improve lives and save them.” [Source: SanFran Chronicle]