Nearly four years after academia contributed almost $30 million to beat George W. Bush and Republicans, it is now donating more money to federal politics than the oil and gas industry, general contractors, the computer and Internet industry, electric utilities, and drugmakers.Luke Rosiak reports that higher education employees, so far in the ’08 election cyclehave given more than $7 million to federal candidates, parties and committees, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Nearly 60 percent of that money has gone to presidential candidates. The industry’s favorite, Barack Obama, has raked in nearly $1.5 million in the campaign’s first six months, followed by Hillary Clinton with almost $940,000.Academic politics? Ever more set in concrete, it would seem. Jason Steck posts further on this topic at The Moderate Voice.