NEWS ANALYSIS : Clinton Plan Plays Well to Silicon Valley Crowd : Technology: The President appears to have won over much of the industry’s conservative leadership.

The presidential roadshow paused in Silicon Valley for 18 hours Sunday and Monday, but in that brief period President Clinton went a long way toward cementing a politically potent alliance with the high-tech community.

From a Sunday dinner with 30 local technology executives to a Monday morning tour of computer manufacturer Silicon Graphics Inc., Clinton and Vice President Al Gore stressed that their Administration understands the needs of high-tech industry and the importance of technology to economic renewal.

And much of the Silicon Valley business community, hardly known for its love of Democrats in general and new taxes in particular, seemed thrilled. Though there is still some dissension in the valley, both the new technology policy announced Monday and Clinton’s broader economic program appeared to be gaining valuable support from a key industry. The policy, which closely matches Clinton campaign proposals, provides tax breaks and more government spending for commercial technology development.

“I don’t think Silicon Valley could be any happier,” said Ed McCracken, president and chief executive of Silicon Graphics. Clinton’s economic program, he said, “is good for the long-term, and we’re willing to be a part of it.”

McCracken, of course, was hardly a neutral observer. Clinton and Gore spent an hour extolling his company for its cutting-edge computer graphics--used to produce special effects for such Hollywood movies as “Aladdin”--and its progressive management policies. A fast-growing, 3,500-employee firm that was funded in part by the Pentagon, Silicon Graphics was a perfect backdrop for a self-proclaimed “new generation” of Democrats.

Clinton told an enthusiastic assembly of Silicon Graphics employees that he had come not only to announce the technology policy but also because “the government ought to work like you do.”

But McCracken isn’t alone in his enthusiasm for Clinton. Apple Computer Chairman John Sculley, an early supporter of Clinton during his campaign, sat next to Hillary Rodham Clinton during last week’s State of the Union address and organized the Sunday dinner.

Even one prominent biotechnology executive had praise for Clinton, despite the President’s recent broadsides against drug industry pricing policies.

“He clearly recognizes that high technologies are fundamental to the future of the country, and especially California,” said Kirk Raab, chief executive of Genentech. “He made some very positive statements about biotech, and I was pleased to see biotech” mentioned as part of the technology policy.

The high-tech industry’s support for Clinton stems not only from the specific policies but also from a general sense that the youthful President and vice president truly understand technology. The Bush Administration was never forgiven for its alleged belief that there was no economic difference between making a computer chip and a potato chip.

When Sculley, McCracken and other high-tech executives broke ranks with the Republicans last September, they gave Clinton a business community endorsement that he used frequently in the closing weeks of the campaign. Now, Clinton is pushing treasured high-tech policies, including a permanent research and development tax credit and a targeted investment tax credit.

Ironically, many components of the technology policy announced Monday were an extension of programs begun during the Bush Administration--albeit under the prodding of Congressional Democrats such as then-Sen. Gore, now Clinton’s designated technology expert. Like Bush, Clinton aims to push the national laboratories toward commercial research, provide government funding for risky, long-term technology development programs and increase funding for the National Science Foundation.

Clinton’s plan also provides new money for research on environmental technologies, and proposes a government-industry program to spur development of low-polluting “clean cars.” In all, the plan calls for $17 billion in new technology spending over four years, but only about $50 million of that will come in 1993.

White House science adviser John Gibbons stressed that the Administration intends to dispense with longstanding ideological disputes over “industrial policy” and end the adversarial relationship between government and industry.

Gibbons noted that while the Bush Administration took years to agree on even a modest technology policy initiative, the Clinton Administration put one together in weeks.

But Silicon Valley hasn’t had a mass conversion overnight; there are still some nay-sayers.

“I’m very negative,” said T. J. Rodgers, the outspoken chief executive of chip manufacturer Cypress Semiconductor. “What I see is tax and spend. What’s new is the Clintonomics jargon, and now it’s a high-tech pork barrel instead of a low-tech pork barrel.”

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