With less than 100 days to go before the November election, presumptive Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are gearing up for their party’s nominating conventions and the final post-Labor Day campaign push.

We’ve been examining both men’s positions on human trafficking and have found — not altogether surprisingly — that neither of the candidates or their campaigns are focusing much time or attention on trafficking-related issues. That doesn’t mean, however, that Senators McCain and Obama are ignoring the issue. On the contrary, both men do have a record of public comments and positions that address (sometimes directly, sometimes obliquely) human trafficking and contemporary slavery. It’s just that in an election in which economic, environmental and foreign policy issues will continue to dominate the political dialog, human trafficking is not likely to become a “hot button” issue.

A closer look at their campaigns reveals that of the two, John McCain has been the most specific in mentioning trafficking as an issue of concern. His overall position was outlined in a speech in May. In it, McCain discussed his “vision for protecting human freedom and dignity,” which contains several elements, among them the creation of a governmental Inter-agency Task Force to better coordinate government policy on human trafficking. The speech did not explain how this proposal differs from an inter-agency task force authorized in the 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act and later manifested in the creation, in 2003, of a senior working level group called the Senior Policy Operating Group (SPOG), which meets quarterly.

McCain also has advocated increased disclosure requirements for web-based companies to enable law enforcement to better track down child porn, human trafficking and illegal sex businesses that often solicit customers — and victims — online.

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