America's first Tech President

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Cypress

Well-known member
Who Will Be America's First tech President?

Grading the Democrats

By the editors, 11/20/2007 - 12:07pm

http://www.techpresident.com/blog/e...a_s_first_techpresident_grading_the_democrats

Back in May, we issued a challenge: "Who will be America's First TechPresident?" We set out six specific policy goals to judge the candidates by:

1. Declare the internet a public good in the same way we think of water, electricity, highways or public education.

2. Commit to providing affordable high-speed wireless Internet access nationwide.

3. Declare a “Net Neutrality” standard forbidding Internet service providers from discriminating among content based on origin, application or type.

4. Instead of “No Child Left Behind,” our goal should be “Every Child Connected.”

5. Commit to building a Connected Democracy where it becomes commonplace for local as well as national government proceedings to be heard by anyone any time and over time.

6. Create a National Tech Corps, because as our country becomes more reliant on 21st century communications to maintain and build our economy we need to protect our communications infrastructure.

We've spent some time looking through the candidates' policy statements on technology, the media, education, transparency and infrastructure, and here's what we've found. First, the Democrats.

John Edwards (A-) gets it. He gets the big picture, saying, "The Internet is not the answer to everything, but it can powerfully accelerate the best of America. It improves our democracy by making quiet voices loud, improves our economy by making small markets big, and improves opportunity by making unlikely dreams possible." And he's got a lot of the details right. His "open media" platform includes a call for a national broadband policy "to help make the Internet more affordable and accessible to all Americans," with the goal of giving all homes and businesses real access by 2010. His "innovation" platform notes what a joke US internet speeds are compared to Japan, and how rural dwellers and African-Americans are particularly hurt by poor net acess. He's a supporter of net neutrality, and so far he is the only candidate who has urged the FCC to also require open use of new broadcast spectrum that is currently being auctioned. Overall, we give him an A-.

Hillary Clinton (B-) either doesn't get it, or hasn't focused on it, yet. The main thrust of her policy proposal on technology focuses on spending more money on science and research, and getting politics out of science policy. By contrast, her position on universal broadband internet access is fairly low-key. "In order to accelerate the deployment of sophisticated networks, Hillary Clinton will provide tax incentives to encourage broadband deployment in underserved areas," her website notes at the end of a long press release on infrastructure priorities. (Her "Connect America" proposal of early October, where she endorsed the "ConnectKentucky" program as a model of improving broadband access, is buried deep in her press archive.) She also promises to invest "up to $50 million annually in state and local telecommuting initiatives." While she is a cosponsor in the Senate of legislation to require all broadband providers to treat all internet traffic equally, she has not mentioned net neutrality since becoming a candidate. Overall, she gets a B-.

Barack Obama (A-) not only gets it, he's put his whole technology/innovation platform into one neat package. Very helpful! In most respects, Obama differs little from Edwards in terms of understanding the power of the internet to drive innovation and educational opportunity, and like Edwards he also strongly supports net neutrality. Where he goes further is in arguing that "technology offers the tools to create real change in America," by connecting citizens to each other and by opening up the federal government to change how business is done--including "giving Americans the chance to participate in government deliberations and decision-making in ways that were not possible only a few years ago." (He calls this creating "a transparent and connected democracy"--hard to argue with that goal.) He also states a clearer case for how new communications infrastructure can help fuel economic growth, create jobs, reduce health care costs and solve the energy crisis. We give him an A-.

Bill Richardson (C-): Bill Richardson's understanding of tech seems on a par with his understanding of gay and lesbian sexual identity. He wants to say the right thing, but doesn't seem sure. Take his education platform: "We should use the best technology to create more flexible learning environments," he said in his speech on the topic. "We need to increase opportunities for Advanced Placement and online courses." Umm, is that it? Yes, it seems. On his list of specific challenges facing the education system, there is no mention of the digital divide. His economic platform talks about investing in technology and innovation, but again, there's no discussion of the internet or the need for affordable, universal broadband access. We give him a C-.

Chris Dodd (C): may have the most creative internet team working on any campaign, but when it comes to tech policy there's a lot wanting. You have to hunt hard to find where he stands on the main issues. His plan for "Revitalizing Rural America," for example, includes a call for a national rural broadband initiative paid for with $2 billion in cheap loans. He also calls for a "virtual learning innovation funding" to support online courses for public schools. Yet, despite a call for "world-class" public schools, he makes no mention of the need for "world-class" internet access for all students. A speech he gave on "innovation and energy independence" last April has nary a word about the net as an engine for innovation. Score Dodd a C.
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Dennis Kucinich (D): is...weird when it comes to technology policy. Could it be that it offends his crunchy granola neo-luddite supporters? Take his platform on "media reform." He's all for "serious media reform"--including free air time for candidates, breaking up major media conglomerates, prohibiting vertical integration, and supporting public media controlled by local communities. Might the internet be an ally towards achieving these goals? Kucinich is silent on the topic. His website says more about dealing with electronic waste than the benefits of universal broadband or the potential to transform democracy. He also says more about everything from dealing with global poverty to hemp. Like we said, weird. Grade him a D.

Joe Biden (B): doesn't talk about it much (ironically), but he's got a pretty solid handle on tech policy, at least when it comes to the economic benefits of broadband access. His "online nation" platform is quite good: "...to compete in a global economy we must become an Online Nation where every community, business and school has access to high-speed Internet connections," he says. "The US should lead the world in access to the internet." Before running for president, he seemed somewhat squishy about the need to insure net neutrality, but now endorses the concept. To his credit, Biden understands that the real digital divide is in access to broadband, both in rural and low-income urban areas--though we'd love to see some more money behind his stated desire to fix that problem. .. We give him a B.
Click to expand...


Next Week, the Republican field...personal comment: they'll need to be graded on a curve, to get passing grades


excerpted

http://www.techpresident.com/blog/e...a_s_first_techpresident_grading_the_democrats
 
This week, the republicans get rated.

Who Will Be America's First techPresident? Grading the Republicans

As with the Democrats, we've approached this review mainly by looking through the candidates' policy statements on technology, the media, education, transparency and infrastructure. We're primarily interested in seeing what issues they choose to highlight on their websites and in their speeches and press releases, as those are good indicators of their priorities. But if we only relied on those sources, we'd have to flunk every Republican running, as there's notably little on their official sites that touches on most of those topics. So we've hunted elsewhere, and want to give credit to two sites, OnTheIssues and National Journal, for performing yeoman's service in scraping together the crumbs into something of a useful picture. Here's what we've found.


Rudy G: We give him a D.

John McCain: We're giving him a C+.

Mitt Romney: D+

Fred Thompson: D+.

Mike Huckabee: We're giving him a C, and we're being generous.

Ron Paul: Again grading generously, we'll give him a C

Tom Tancredo: We're flunking him. F.

Duncan Hunter: Another F.

http://www.techpresident.com/blog/e...s_first_techpresident_grading_the_republicans
 
Who is we...?

Cypress said:
This week, the republicans get rated.

Who Will Be America's First techPresident? Grading the Republicans

As with the Democrats, we've approached this review mainly by looking through the candidates' policy statements on technology, the media, education, transparency and infrastructure. We're primarily interested in seeing what issues they choose to highlight on their websites and in their speeches and press releases, as those are good indicators of their priorities. But if we only relied on those sources, we'd have to flunk every Republican running, as there's notably little on their official sites that touches on most of those topics. So we've hunted elsewhere, and want to give credit to two sites, OnTheIssues and National Journal, for performing yeoman's service in scraping together the crumbs into something of a useful picture. Here's what we've found.


Rudy G: We give him a D.

John McCain: We're giving him a C+.

Mitt Romney: D+

Fred Thompson: D+.

Mike Huckabee: We're giving him a C, and we're being generous.

Ron Paul: Again grading generously, we'll give him a C

Tom Tancredo: We're flunking him. F.

Duncan Hunter: Another F.

http://www.techpresident.com/blog/e...s_first_techpresident_grading_the_republicans
Click to expand...


doing the grading anyhoo...you and the 'Kennel Hounds'...?:rolleyes:
 
Castro this is comical, did we just have a tech breakthrough. Did we use hammer an chisel last election.
 
They waited until after he isn't in the race to give a grade to Tom? Don't they know he isn't running?
 
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