The McCain Campaign Tech Policy
The McCain Campaign's policy people have put their stake in the ground. Here's how they frame the issues in the first pararaph:
John McCain has a broad and cohesive vision for the future of American innovation. His policies will provide broad pools of capital, low taxes and incentives for research in America, a commitment to a skilled and educated workforce, and a dedication to opening markets around the globe. He’s committed to streamlining burdensome regulations and effectively protecting American intellectual property in the United States and around the globe.
The full text is here.
I look at this as the ideas of Mike Powell and Meg Whitman, and a lot of unimportant wordsmithing, and recently I wrote something similar for a down-ticket candidate. You, or One, or I (isn't voice fun) tries for ideas that matter, and then try to connect the dots, for the staff of a candidate who needs clue, e.g., to make effective calls to the Dem major contributor lists for area codes 415, 408, 650 and 831. The ideas in Mike Powell's and Meg Whitman's tech policy piece are surprising ... in their absence.
Western Union Telegraph Company v. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 128 U.S. 39[3] containes an idea that matters -- that states may not tax interstate telegraph messages. Of course, credit for that idea goes to Chief Justice Melville Fuller, who wrote the decision in 1888, and "policy" is a cognate for "tax".
It is an interesting piece of writing, and it may achieve the probable political goal of making technology a non-issue in the campaign.
Note well that Obama's tech plan (like McCain's) is silent on warrantless spying. A vote for either is a vote for that.
Other reviewers: Susan Crawford at circleID, Kevin Werbach, also at circleID, David Isenberg, also at circleID, and Harold Feld at wetmachine, Matt Stoller at OpenLeft, which I include just to show that a lack of seriousness in an otherwise smart guy isn't good politics or good policy.
See also Kevin Werbach's post and Michael Powell's reply to Kevin Werbach.
Update: A revised version of this is up at CircleID.
