The Tech Voter's Guide to the CandidatesThe Tech Voter's Guide to the Candidates

Granted there are pressing issues -- like healthcare, immigration, and the war -- that will sway some voters from one candidate to another but what will likely influence many IT managers is the candidate's stand on tech issues.

information Staff, Contributor

January 3, 2008

1 Min Read
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Granted there are pressing issues -- like healthcare, immigration, and the war -- that will sway some voters from one candidate to another but what will likely influence many IT managers is the candidate's stand on tech issues.Things like net neutrality, Internet taxes, Internet access, and research and development tax credits, to name just a few tech topics, all have the power, depending upon how the next president views them, to change or at least impact how IT gets done and it behooves those in IT to at least be informed before casting their vote.

Fortunately, CNET, has a fairly comprehensive 2008 technology voter's guide that covers the responses of many of the candidates to a series of questions on nearly everything from tech legislation to high speed Internet access to privacy concerns.

In many cases, the answers are revealing. Obama is a big believer in net neutrality and does not support federal legislation to mandate data retention. McCain wants to keep Internet connections tax-free and wants to see market-based solutions to increasing broadband penetration. Clinton thinks there's a "role for private industry and for the federal government to play" in expanding access to broadband. She also wants to make the research and development tax credit permanent.

Not everyone responded to CNET's questions. Republicans Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani, and Fred Thompson and Democrats Joe Biden and Bill Richardson "rebuffed" the requests. Maybe that, too, is revealing, or at least something to keep in mind when the primaries come to your town.

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