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As has been pointed out (simmer down, Spooky), the President can encourage or discourage specific research projects that are being undertaken by government institutions, or those the government finances or otherwise influences... which accounts for a lot of research, more than most people know (in OR out of this country). Bush's opposition to stem cell research is a good example of technology that was not only discouraged, but banned, by the President, affecting government and private institutions. The Kennedy-supported Apollo program is a good example of an encouraged technology.
In the case of e-books, no current U.S. government program is directly involved with digital literature... the furthest they have gone, so far, is the initiative to make all public documents and information available on the web to all Americans (an initiative that is still far from finished). This effort has affected the govt as they have tried to make legacy documents available in some format or another, and have therefore been exposed to the many issues inherent in digital document handling.
It is conceivable to have the President and the executive branch step in and attempt to modernize the present copyright system, for example, to better include digital documents (and other electronic files), presently a sore point within and without the country. Such a move could improve the prospects of e-books in general, more indirectly than directly.
Which brings us back to the candidates... wherein I can see Obama, clearly interested in change and, judging by his responses, probably more tech-savvy that the other candidates, would be more likely to see and understand the problems in national and international copyright law that are hindering the development of digital commerce, and digital documents, as well as the environmental and economic advantages inherent in digital documents, and be interested in making an effort to improve the current situation. (That's clearly conjecture on my part, understand.)
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