Obama vs. McCain: Communications and Technology Policy
Here is a video of a debate between surrogates for the Obama and McCain campaigns on Communications and Technology Policy. Former FCC chairs Reed Hundt (speaking for the Obama campaign) and Michael Powell (McCain campaign) face off on issues of Network Neutrality, Media Ownership, and other pressing issues of the information age.
What struck me most about this debate was the stark difference between the two. One of them showed himself to be sharp, clear, well-spoken and thoughtful of evidence, support, and meaning; the other dealt in platitudes about witnessing marvels, vague and theoretical to the point of obfuscation, long on stories and short on substance, dismissive of specifics, condescending, and a sop to big business. It is not even a little challenge to see these differences or figure out who is dealing what. Hundt, quite frankly, swept the floor with Powell. Which was not quite fair, considering what each was given by his candidate to deal with. But you get that feeling the Hundt probably would have done it anyway, evidence notwithstanding.
Here’s something to do: while watching this video, ask yourself–which of these would you rather have as a boss?
Update: The thought just occurred to me: it seems that Hundt came armed with specific policy points, factual evidence, examples, concrete arguments–while Powell came prepared with little more than flowery language, anecdotes, and general college-level Econ theories dressed up with technobabble buzzwords, expecting that to be the level of the debate. In short, It was Hundt bringing a gun to Powell’s knife fight.
McCain doesn’t even know how to use a computer!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_R9wnMVZE_Q
Mark:
Any thoughts on more specific issues that these two discussed like where the candidates stand on media consolidation?
Jessica: Oh man, where to even start? Just looking at both of their web sites says a lot: while McCain has whole sections devoted to “The Second Amendment,” “Judicial Philosophy,” and “The Sanctity of Life” (Read: more guns, stripped Constitution, ban abortion), there’s almost nothing there on technology; Obama’s site, on the other hand, has categories on a much more broad range of general issues, including technology specifically. Just from that, it’s as if Obama wants to explain himself whereas McCain wants to push his ideology on you.
McCain’s “technology” stance seems much more of a “favor industry” stance–cut taxes blindly, deregulate, let businesses do what they want. Even a McCain plan to get more Internet access to low income people comes in the form of a corporate tax break. McCain is against Network Neutrality, the policy which has made the Internet the great success and economic juggernaut it has been for the U.S.–not to mention a fair, free, and open form of media like we have never enjoyed before. While McCain’s “no Internet taxes” stance is helpful, it does not come from an informed philosophy of Internet development but instead from a blind cut-taxes-where-business-is-involved doctrine. He trashes NN as “government regulation,” again as a blind, blanket crusade against something he sees as bad for business, without seeming to understand how and why it works to encourage business. With McCain, I am pretty sure that we would have a continuance of the Bush administration’s no-Internet-policy quagmire. While Japan years ago instituted a strong government policy and now the whole nation is fast broadband, the U.S. has allowed “deregulation” and “market forces” to rule–and so we have little progress in that area beyond where the market feels it has no choice. In Internet & Telecommunications, especially in a deregulated market where there is less competition (McCain babbles about free markets meaning more competition while he approves of media consolidation), the trend is to make more money off what few services exist rather than to speed up development of new technologies. Only where you have the philosophy inherent to Network Neutrality–the freedom of the small guy to break onto the scene and compete head-on with the big boys–do you see real progress.
Obama understands technology just as much as McCain does not. He is pro-NN, anti-media consolidation, wants to expand Internet infrastructure, and had very progressive technology policies. He goes beyond just reasonable basic tech stances, he he wants to use technology proactively to achieve a variety of goals, including education, environment, health and public safety, employment, science, and so forth. You can just feel the sophistication behind his policies, and can see another tech boom coming from an industry led by such an administration. Obama just gets it.
In short, there’s simply no competition here. It’s like the comic you see above: McCain is this pretender just showing up for the job, while Obama is the capable worker ready to get down to it. Hundt and Powell just served to make the distinction a bit more clear.
So what do you think?