Net neutrality and the candidates for president

[beth_leonard]

The EFF pointed me at this article in Slate about Obama's and McCain's policies on net-neutrality and the internet. It's written by an Obama supporter and a net-neutrality supporter, so I'm tempted to dig deeper to find out if each candidate's true beliefs are accurately represented by the article, but it's an issue that's important to me, and I likely will look into it before election day. I'm not a single-issue voter, but of the issues I care about, this is near the top of my list.

From the article:

So, which candidate is on the side of the market? Both McCain and Obama would claim that their views on the Internet and net neutrality are "pro-market." McCain calls it "prescriptive regulation" to dictate to cable or phone companies in what form they must provide the Internet. Conversely, Obama's camp says that a neutral Internet, like other public utilities, is the base line over which the free market operates.
[...]
Camp McCain dreams of a competitive market in Internet services, and so if Obama sees the Internet as a road, McCain takes it as a car: something that consumers will buy if they want it.

--Beth

Comments

[beth_leonard]

For my own reference, it appears that Biden is not on the same side I am:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10024163-38.html

--Beth

[minorninth.livejournal.com]

Obama spoke and answered questions at Google earlier this year. He was fantastic. It was not his first visit, and he really understood the issues that are important to technology companies. He talked intelligently about net neutrality. He not only supports it, he really understands the issues and knows why he supports it. He understands that the net has always been neutral and that we need to make sure it stays that way. He's brought it up in several other speeches, too.

McCain, on the other hand, may claim to support some form of net neutrality in theory, but I've seen no evidence suggesting he has any idea what he's talking about. I've never heard him bring it up in one of his speeches, and any time he does talk about technology (read: anything invented since 1960) he sounds like an idiot.

Totally unscientific, but a quick search of http://labs.google.com/gaudi reveals several Obama speeches where he mentions net neutrality, but none from McCain.

[beth_leonard]

Cool, thanks! I'm a conservative by nature, and also much more of a hawk than most democrats, but this is an issue that is very important to me. What this election is beginning to come down to is that I'd rather have either of the presidents win (first time in my voting life that's been true) and neither of the VPs.

--Beth

[steuard.livejournal.com]

At the risk of being morbid (and presumably influenced by my own longstanding candidate preference), that might be a good reason to take a long, hard look at some actuarial tables.

[querldox.livejournal.com]

Both the Obama Google talk and the McCain Google talk are up on YouTube. Two things to note about the Obama talk; he starts with a scripted speech/policy talk, so there's significantly less time for questions from the audience.

Also, he and McCain were both asked the same first ice-breaker question. While Obama gives a funny and quick reply, it should be noted that McCain was the first (and only other candidate who spoke at Google) to be asked that question. It's clear to me that Obama was prepped with his answer, as it's completely outside his experience or known expertise. While that does say good things about the thoroughness of his staff, it also means that McCain should be penalized for not having an answer ready for it, as there was no way he or his staff could have anticipated it.

[querldox.livejournal.com]

er, McCain should not be penalized...