Obama & Huckabee: Best Chance For an Open Internet?
My mother always told me that it was inappropriate to discuss religion and politics. I thus find it fascinating that when she’s not talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers, she’s usually discussing those two very topics. As a current resident of Washington, D.C., I’m beginning to see how crazy things are going to get here over the next year. With MySpace’s primary, the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire Primary all taking place in the past few days, I thought it may be the right time to throw my hat into the ring of one of the two unmentionable topics: politics.
Social media has become an increasingly important issue within each of the campaigns for the presidency. Howard Dean’s grass root Internet fundraising that raised eyebrows in ’04 is today an integral part of each candidate’s campaign. Just by browsing through their separate websites, I found a space on each page for citizens to get involved with the candidate on a social media level—whether it be through Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Linkedin, Flickr, etc. But, as most blogs and pundits continue to discuss what the Internet’s impact on politics will be, I’d like to ask perhaps a much more important question: What will politics’ impact be on the Internet?
Net Neutrality is one of ERA’s most important advocacy issues on Capitol Hill. Preserving a free and open Internet, as opposed to a two-tiered system controlled by the telecoms, is vital to the Internet’s thriving e-commerce. If you don’t think it’s a big deal, perhaps you haven’t heard that Comcast was recently caught interfering with Internet traffic. Of the major candidates in both parties, only Democrat Barack Obama’s website tackles this very important issue. Under “Issues,” he has a section devoted entirely to technology, while other candidates make no mention. Of the Republican candidates, Mike Huckabee has shown promising signs of favoring Net Neutrality. Perhaps our fellow Americans in Iowa had electronic retailers in mind as they braved near-freezing temperatures to make Obama and Huckabee the victors. Where were you New Hampshire? Forget gay marriage and Iraq, your bottom line may be at stake depending on the outcome of this year’s election!
I’d ask for your thoughts, but I’m sure that you know better than to discuss politics…right?
Pat Cauley, eMedia editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine
Tags: barack obama, ERA, Government Affairs, mike huckabee, net neutrality, pat cauley
January 11th, 2008 at 11:06 am
i think by reaching out to people via internet, the campaigns will grab a lot of attention from young people. this might be stating the obvious, but even in 2006, candidates weren’t using the internet the way the 2008 presidential candidates are now.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:28 am
You mentioned the Comcast scenario in this post, so I thought people might want a bit more info about it. I blogged about this very issue a couple of months ago. You can read it here:
http://martyfahncke.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/is-comcast-turning-into-big-brother/
February 29th, 2008 at 1:53 am
This might be a bit off topic but the nice thing about buying new electronics is they have a warranty. You are buying something that has moving parts or electricity going to it so it has the potential of breaking, there is nothing you can do but replace it, that does not mean the company that made the product sucks, it means the individual item sucked!
March 10th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
[…] affairs, Bill McClellan, was there in person to witness the entire debacle. As I described in an earlier post, Net Neutrality is one of ERA’s core government affairs initiatives, because keeping the Internet […]