Pirate's Cove

Fortune wants to know which Presidential candidate is the best for the tech industry, supposedly. Why supposedly?

But President Bush also made one of the most egregiously revealing verbal errors of the three debates when he spoke in the second one, again referring to the draft, about “talk on the Internets” that a draft was coming. Does this guy even use the web? Speaking of “Internets” shows, if nothing else, that Bush is not in touch with the realities of today’s technology usage. It does not bode well for his ability to formulate subtle and appropriate policies relevant to this burgeoning sector of our economy. “Saturday Night Live” made great hay out of this mistake, having Bush continue by saying the real problem may be that we have so many Internets.

Funny how the article has to take a slap at GWB for the internets thing. Quite obvious that there was a bias by the writer. To suggest a link between a silly word and a lack of understanding of tech is ludicrous. Matter of fact, W was told to stop putting certain info into his own personal Blog. Bush has better stuff for people to integrate into their personal blogs, as well as backgrounds, screensavers, etc, then Kerry’s website does. How many leftwing sites have you seen with the newsfeeds like one can get from W’s site? That would be none. Kerry doesn’t have one.

Look at the Bushblog page. Incredible, isn’t it? Look at all the xml feeds. Kerry has one XML feed, buried all the way down at the bottom of the right side.

So, which candidate looks more hip to current technology to you? And, which candidate has considerably more supporters who blog? I know my answer. What is yours?

Point of fact, both candidates have mentioned making sure that everyone has access to free broadband, a laughable and rediculous stance for either. ‘Taint going to happen for, at the best, decades. You can bet the house that the Broadband and dial up providers would pitch a coniption fit if the Feds tried that.

Bush: Promote Broadband Innovation – The President has set the goal of making affordable broadband access available to all Americans by 2007. Innovation will be possible through next-generation technologies such as ultra high-speed wireless services.
Make the Ban on Internet Access Taxes Permanent – The President has signed into law a two-year extension of the Internet Access Tax moratorium. In addition, he has called on Congress to pass legislation to expand the moratorium to cover broadband and make it permanent. (this has been on the docket for Bush for almost a year.

Kerry: Today, America has slipped to 10th in the world in adapting broadband technology. John Kerry and John Edwards will wire every corner of America and provide first responders with a secure broadband network by 2006. Emphasis mine. Notice the nuance? Looks like he isn’t talking about giving everyone access, eh?

About the only thing that really makes sense in the Fortune article is:

Nobody at Vortex made a convincing argument that either candidate would really make a big difference for tech. But this industry has shown it can do pretty well without much government help or guidance. (One notable exception: the critical decision, made in the Clinton years, not to mandate the collection of taxes online. It hugely helped spur growth of the Internet.)

In the end, what the technology industry may most need is a government that leaves it alone. Maybe the fact that neither man is much engaged is, in the end, a good thing.

Yup. Let the private industry do it’s thing. Government should deal with it’s purpose: to govern.