Much has been made here and elsewhere about John McCain's admission that he's illiterate -- computer illiterate, that is. But now that the tickets on both the Republican and Democratic sides have been fleshed out with running mates, it's worth taking a look at where vice presidential picks Sarah Palin and Joe Biden fall on the tech spectrum.

In some ways, in fact, how the next second-in-command of the U.S. feels about technology might be nearly as important as what the guy in the Oval Office thinks. Using Al Gore's "reinventing government" portfolio as a guide, in a busy and ambitious administration some of the responsibility for technology in the next presidential administration could well fall to the vice president.

So let's dig in, with the expectation that what's touched on here is but the very tip of the iceberg when it comes to where the VP candidates stand on tech. We'll be keeping an eye on the topic as we move towards November.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin

Having been governor of Alaska for less than two years and mayor of a small city before that, Palin frankly doesn't have an overly extensive record on technology. A recent post on GovTech has to reach pretty far afield to find some meat to chew on; the piece focuses on an online job training program and some efforts she made in health care transparency. One legislative note: Palin signed a bill last summer banning Internet hunting -- that is, the online remote-controlled shooting of big game. But that act likely says more more about Palin's thinking on conservation and the environment (and crazy hobbies) than on technology.

Far more importantly for our purposes, Palin backed a nationwide good-government effort to put state financial records online. Her support led to the creation of the State of Alaska's Check Book Online site, a web tool that aims to make the state's business dealings open and transparent.

Palin is, it seems, personally up on modern technology -- at least the kind that buzzes in your pocket. Indeed, an article in Alaska magazine from February of this year reports that "in front of her are a BlackBerry and a cell phone, devices that rarely leave her side." And a snapshot taken after Palin's announcement rally and posted to McCain's daughter Meghan's blog shows a fairly funny scene: Palin cradling a baby in one arm with what's either a BlackBerry or cell phone in the other hand while she stares at another BlackBerry laying on the table in front of her. (Seriously, the photo is totally worth a click through. I'll wait.)

If that sort of juggling of family and gadgetry doesn't mark modern living, I'm not sure what does.

When it comes to the Internet, executives like Palin tend to focus on concrete issues like rollout and access. Alaska does indeed have a Rural Alaska Broadband Internet Access Program, which subsidizes industry provision of broadband in rural Alaskan communities, aiming to bring broadband to the far reaches of the state at the same rate paid by subscribers in cities like Anchorage and Fairbanks. But while a second round of Alaska broadband funding completed under Palin's tenure issued some $15 million in grant monies, the program was established through the efforts of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, not Palin.

As governor of the rather enormous and rural state of Alaska, Palin might be uniquely suited for having a vision for bringing broadband connectivity to rural America and what it might mean for providing the services desperately needed in some of America's rural communities, from telemedicine to telework. As such, we'd love to hear more about Palin's vision for rural broadband and connectivity in the coming days.

Delaware Senator Joe Biden

Like Palin, Joe Biden seems to also have a fondness for electronic gadgetry. Biden's wife Jill recently told People Magazine this: "He's on that Blackberry and his phones constantly. I won't let him drive the car because everything's ringing. I say, 'Pull over!' It's too dangerous." (via the New York Daily News)

As a legislator rather than an executive, Biden has focused much of his work on tech on shaping the Internet. There, Biden has been quite active. Joe Biden is clearly aware that the Internet exists. But whether or not you count that as a good thing depends on where you stand.

Biden certainly has his detractors on this front. Long-time tech journalist Declan McCullagh has derided Biden's tech voting record as "pro-RIAA [and] pro-FBI," particularly for his efforts on copyright and encryption. Online tech hub CNET, as Declan notes, gave Biden a 37% on its 2006 congressional "Technology Voter Guide." (As points of comparison, McCain scored a 31% and Obama a 50%.) Also concerning to some in the tech world is that Biden has been quite vocal on Capitol Hill with his warnings of the "growing dangers" of online child exploitation. He wrote a strident 2003 op-ed decrying how "high-tech piracy is jeopardizing American jobs." And he worked across the aisle Senator Orrin Hatch to pass a "cybercrime" bill -- though the jury seems to be out on that particular piece of legislation.

When it comes to net neutrality, one of biggest questions at the forefront of tech policy debates, Biden has made statements that reveal a skepticism about the wisdom of having government regulate Internet traffic before (in his opinion) major problems arise.

Finally, when it comes to using the Internet for political openness and transparency, Biden had this to say in an interview last summer with Salon: "One of the things that happens is that the public is coming to grips with how to deal with this instant, unfiltered information that may be deliberately mis-edited. But I think -- and this is naive maybe -- I have confidence that the American people will put this in perspective. Like when one of the bloggers said, 'We're going to take back the Democratic Party.' They don't own the Democratic Party. What are they talking about?"

What it means for vice presidential running mates Sarah Palin and Joe Biden -- or any politician, really -- to be "aware of the Internet" is, of course, an enormous question. And what we've touched on here is just the beginning. When it comes to the future of tech in America, it's worthwhile to keep digging.

(Thanks to Micah Sifry for some of the research that went into this post.)