Upcoming Podcast With Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney - We Need Your Help

Brilliant guy, too intellectual for red states for his own good, and trying too hard to be in-sync with what passes as “”"”"conservative”"”" these days for it not to be all to evident.

Could Obama camp be on this too??

You better be lighting quick in uploading that podcast…otherwise by the time you upload he has already flip flopped on the issue.

p.s. plenty of candidates talked tect at Google

here is the link with all the candidates who visited Google:
http://youtube.com/user/AtGoogleTalks

No big surprise that Ron Paul has the most views, and the biggest support on Google campus:

Ron Paul: 304,202
Clinton: 47,995
McCain: 19,359
Edwards: 9,159
Gravel: 8,142
Richardson: 6,262

He did use to be one of the heads of Bain Capital, so he has some street cred…

But I can’t help but wonder if he switched back to supporting MySpace instead of Facebook, at the same time he switched from to pro-life from being pro-choice

I would like to see Fred do it. (there was the gratuitous link to obama hussein so i though I would link to Fred).

Is this for real?

We have U.S soldiers dying in Iraq, kids without health care, a runaway deficit, a crashed housing market, a looming recession, global warming, skyrocketing oil prices, (I could keep going)…

Is there someone out there that would actually vote for a presidential candidate based on their “tech position?”

I’d love to hear from Bill Richardson….probably the most brilliant person in the race (and that’s coming from a conservative so you know he must be good).

Mike,

I think when you touch on “Intellectual property issues - copyright, patent and trademark policies” –> you should really speak about the internationalization of the copyright, trademark and patent issues.

You need to talk about the attitudes of people towards copyright outside of America and the fact that America is really the only country that has such stringent controls - or rather - the only that enforces them ad-infinitum.

Someone who lives in China and only earns $500 a year, isn’t about to spend all of that on Microsoft Vista when they can get a $2 for the same price?

I think that internationalization issues surrounding copyright, trademark and patent are critical to the formulation of a more coherent multi-lateral policy.
Since America leads the world on suing just about everyone for everything –> how is America going to handle the torrent that will be China and India in the next 12 - 24 months ?

My 2 Cents …

faceloop - I agree those are pressing issues, but they are being covered elsewhere. Will Mitt’s position on visas for engineers affect the way I vote? It could, particularly when looking at candidates who have similar positions on other issues.

Kind of funny that all the google ads just changed to Mitt Romney related stuff.

You should do more stories on Political parties, they may have higher CPC rates! Or just do tech stories and drop in a few political names here and there……haha

Tcruncher2 - good ideas.

Mitt Romney has impressed me as a candidate and his background with Bain Capital would suggest that he gets finance and markets.

My questions: what is his position in relation to a VC tax that has been talked about recently, also taxation of capital gains: I believe some Democrats have previously floated taxing capital gains at the point of transaction as opposed to the current ability to defer the tax through reinvestment. This is one tax benefit that has helped American VC to thrive over other countries.

On IP where does he stand in relation to the Sonny Bono bill, prohibitive legislation that has removed items from the public domain, a move that benefits only a few whilst denying everyone else. Should copyright be indefinite or does he believe in a reasonable expiry date?

Also obviously net neutrality, for or against, and why

I’d be interested in their stance on Net Neutrality. With all this recent discussion about Comcast filtering certain types of traffic, I think it’s an interesting issue to bring up.

I’m still pretty curious why he thought it was a good idea to strap his dog’s crate to the top of his car and then drive on the freeway.

I would like to know where these candidates stand on the issue of online security for minors. I think that conservatives tend to use sexual predators and social networks as a fear tactic and I wouldn’t vote for anyone who took that approach. Nevertheless, there are sexual predators online and this is an issue that any candidate should understand and be prepared to discuss.

And faceloop, do you think we should ignore the digital divide simply because there are other serious issues? The digital divide is an enormous economic issue that will further stratify our society in terms of class, and by default race, if we do not address it. It is an issue that is “for real.” I agree, technology is not the most salient basis by which to choose a candidate, but does that make it extraneous? I for one am glad for the chance to examine a candidate from different perspectives rather than the banal abortion/health care/war in Iraq perspective that we always get.

Why, Faceloop of Comment 6…

Tech IS one of the main engines of the U.S. economy, so you cannot ignore it. No presidential candidate can. You cannot extract any of those issues you list from technology, as it is such an integral part of modern American life. The terrorist attacks and war in Iraq are all assaults on our way of life, and our technological edge is the source of much envy around the world. You cannot be a modern day President and not have a plan to keep the U.S. at the technological forefront.

Regarding global warming, the problem cannot be sorted with today’s technology but will have to be solved with the innovation of tomorrow.

I, for one, would look at a Presidential candidate’s technological plank come decision time.

Surprising that Romney is the first to respond. Since Al Gore created the internet, I figured it would be someone from his camp?..

I like this guy, well as much as I can like any politician.
But, given the choice of Hellary and anybody, I’ll take anybody!

First and foremost let me tell you that this podcast is a great idea. Hopefully we’ll see more candidates joining the debate.

I like Romney. I like where he stands in terms of immigration and labor enforcement. Too bad I can’t vote (I’m not an US citizen).

Romney is just a prettier Bush. Before we get to technology, he needs to answer Constitutional questions correctly.

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/.....ervatives/

Am no “feminist”, but truly, Mr. Faux Ballmer…your wit sparkles!

It’s been over 100 years since women have had the right to vote, and fifty years since the birth of feminism. Sounds like you are setting back the cause…oh…150 years?..

Agnieszka - wait, does that mean that if a person doesn’t support Hillary they are against women’s rights?

As a former CEO of Bain, it would be interesting to hear his views on the venture capital space? I’d also be like to hear his thoughts on stuff like the use of stock options, the roll of tech in the general economy, and his views on the impact of the private equity on market risk.

Does leave space for one to assume…if someone knocks ‘Hellery’ without addressing specific issues as to why he is against a particular candidate.

As a startup founder, here’s what I care about:

- visas
- capital gains
- getting the cell phone carriers sorted out so that we can compete

I’d be very interesting in hearing from Dr. Ron Paul. Of all the candidates, I feel he would create the best global environment for Technology. Every other major candidate in one way or another favors big Government, and ‘control’ over things. Dr. Paul is the only one that strongly favors the marketplace.

Most other industries in this country over the history have been ruined when legislators get their hands in them. No candidates should be talking about whether or not net neutrality or anything similar should or should not be passed - they should be discussing the role in Government in our lives - and the right answer is that Limited Government in all ways is what would be best.

Dr. Paul would ensure that a legislation such as Net Neutrality does NOT pass, and would let the free market determine the right answer. Let there be competition. If Comcast wants to filter certain content, let a competitor take away their market share. What we must fear is the lobbyists and the politicians who get bought by them.

Over all the Technology industry has done so well over the past couple of decades only because the Government hasn’t gotten it’s hands into it - YET. Lets make sure that we keep it that way.

Once again, I’d love to hear from Dr. Paul in these podcasts.

As a web developer who worked on Romney’s campaign I would love to see Romney’s stance on internet security issues. Particularly the whole “one-id-card-fits-all” database floating around capitol hill.

#27 - ah, the national id card, good issue.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007.....tional-id/

@ Agnieszka: Depending on the State a woman lived in, she may have had the right to vote since before the founding of the United States. The 1920 amendment standardized these rights across all the States but did not necessarily grant any rights that did not already exist (though in some States it did) — a common misperception. For example, in a few States there was only one voting right per household, which was abolished by that amendment.

That said, I have no idea what Hillary has to do with women’s rights. Honestly, she reads as a thinly veiled sociopath, so I would prefer many other people over her on that basis alone. Fully half (including myself) of the executive staff in my high-tech venture is female, but that doesn’t blind me to the gross shortcomings of Clinton as an individual. I’m not even a Republican, I simply don’t like Hillary.

With all the coverage of the RIAA and Music Industry on here, it’d be great to know what he thinks about copyright and trademark issues.

Also, I’d love to hear him comment on the idea of internet taxes (which eBay I believe is lobbying hard against).

These issues strike me as compelling ones for a blog like TC to bring up in a podcast with a presidential candidate. One of the ones that I find increasingly scary though is, “the role of technology in education - what role should government and technology companies have”. To be clear, it is the second part of that, the government’s role in education WRT technology. The internet and mobile media has dramatically changed the way I, and many of my friends, learn these days. Thanks to schools like MIT, Stanford, Duke, Yale, and others, I now have the luxury of downloading coursework directly from these schools, or can just go to iTunes U and download any number of lectures for free! This is a very good thing and I hope that more institutions follow the trend. However, what happens if the government gets involved? Will there be regulations as to what might be appropriate content? Might that Stanford class on human sexuality be a bit too racy for conservative legislators? (I can picture it now, republican senator grandstanding, reading from Miller’s Sexus, or perhaps quoting a lecture about orgasms from Naomi Wolf, saying “This is how our tax dollars are being spent?!”). Worse, I can see that same senator arguing that creationism deserves equal presence alongside evolution in order to get any tax breaks and such from the government. Now, I know this sounds one-sided and perhaps a bit paranoid, but the same arguments could be made from the right. The internet provides a great forum for learning (as well as wasting time and copious amounts of porn), but I am deeply concerned about the government’s role in anything having to do with education regulation and technology. I say just make sure that public and private institutions alike continue to have tax breaks, and let them decide what and how to distribute their materials without any fear of reprisal from the government.

Michael,

Why do the usual and you choose all the questions (granted, you may choose one from a user if you like it, but it is all your call). Why not allow the community wisdom to emerge to decide at least some of them, as we are doing here: http://www.askthenextpresident.com. Otherwise, it is just the same top-down stuff, which is not bad, but not very creative either.

I have four issues I am interested in hearing about.

1. Net Neutrality Please. Would love to hear his position on that.

2. Also, the US’s role is preserving and managing the internet, and how this balances with other countries desires to reduce our dominating influence.

3. And the current battle for the last bit of broadband spectrum, it would be interested to hear his position on that issue.

4. I would also like to hear this thoughts on how long the internet is to be exempt from taxes, as I believe this is already changing on a state by state basis. Any other thoughts on taxes and the internet would be appreciated as well.

Thanks,

Tim McCormack
iRent2u.com - the Online Rental Marketplace

Ron Paul is an interesting candidate.

He’s a man who has a lot of admirable Jeffersonian talking points, but I wonder if he has the philosophical muster to back them up. He reminds me of a child - taking the core of a great idea and applying it nonsensically to every situation. I don’t know that he has thought through these things beyond the level of ‘people good - government bad.’

I’ve heard him described as a crazy old man. Sometimes I consider voting for this crazy old man simply to shock the political system and make to it more evident to the political consultants that there is a desire for true Libertarian reforms. But it’s hard to deny that he’s a crazy old man.

Dear Alias Dictus Tyrant…or shall I call you Nero? Do your talents include psychiatry as well?

Thank you for your relevant insight, btw. Still, I have more interest in a candidate’s stance on issues than personality.

And so I look forward to the podcast with anticipation. G’night.

ELECTRONIC VOTING

The way things are currently set up, can the results of electronic voting be trusted? What is preventing the results from being manipulated? What could be done to bring about more confidence in the robustness of electronic voting?

I here Steven Colbert is running for president. I think you should get in contact with his camp ASAP.

No one has mentioned what I think is one of the most important current tech issues: AT&T and Verizon’s warrantless internet wiretapping for the NSA. I would like to know if Romney supports the organizations’ actions and if he believes the telcos deserve immunity for their actions, a proposal which has recently surfaced in Congress.

More information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N.....ontroversy
and here:
http://www.eff.org/cases/att

Michael,

thanks. Please ask him something like below…

“Do you think US should ease Green card process for H1B and F1/J1(student/scholar) visa holders who are educated and can contribute significantly in US economy ? What what you do if answer is ‘Yes’ to the first question? ”

“Should we focus more on immigration policies for legal aliens(H1B, F1, J1) than immigration policies for illegal immigrants? “

Great idea Mike! This is exactly the type of initiative we need to introduce some diversity of opinion and innovation into the stale media coverage we normally get.

From my side, I’d be curious to hear his stance on the immigration and visa issues: I was an engineer trained in a US university, worked in tech in NYC, but then eventually left the country because I got tired of fighting all the roadblocks the govt had laid out in front of us just because my passport was not the right color. While I would love to go back to the US, I’m perfectly happy building my tech entrepreneurial life here in Europe. Will things change in the US? I know there are thousands of people in my situation who hope it will.

Shafqat
http://blog.newscred.com

Skip ALL the issues you mentioned and ask him FLAT out about the current AT&T/Verizon illegal wiretapping and pending government immunity.

If he’s for immunity then ask him how he would feel about legislation requiring non-classified all communication by government official to be made public.

After all it’s only the 4th amendment we’re talking about here.

#40..We feel same..Please ask your friends in similar situation to post their requests here..

I would be interested in hearing about why neither Mr. Romney, nor most of the Republican candidates, will be able to attend the “YouTube debate” in November. I have my own suspicions, and your interview probably isn’t the place to raise those. But there is a legitimate journalistic question there, one that likely interests TechCrunch readers.

Does all this means that TechCrunch is an Republican blog?

@35: My specialty, to the extent that I have one, is cognitive science and behavior analytics, but I should disclose that my proper education is in chemical engineering. My current venture is based on new technology not related to any of the above history — I’m a polymath.

Stances on the issues are moderated by personality and character, because of all of these “stances” are the easiest to modify. Hillary will happily be just about anything her audience wants her to be at the moment, and she does it very naturally. That is a valuable skill in some settings, but not something I’d want in a president. Politicians are smarmy used-car salesmen, but at least you know what that means in the big picture. I would prefer none of the above when it really comes down to it, but a greasy low-rent salesman is likely to do less damage than an overtly power-hungry sociopath.

Naturally, what I would really like is a principled individual to take part in these elections, both those are hard to come by in the political process. Ironically, even though I disagree with him on many issues, Ron Paul is almost certainly the most principled candidate running. I may not agree with him, but he clearly understands the difference between his preferences and the obligations of political office, and his political actions have been consistently within the Constitution for a very long time. Which is more than I can say about just about anyone else in Congress. I respect Ron Paul for his principle, even when I disagree with him, because you know he will follow the Constitution even when it is not politically expedient. We’ll be voting for other people, of course, but it would do us well to have someone that understands both economics (something Ron Paul is kind of poor at in truth) and the Constitution, neither of which describes Hillary Clinton. It is nothing personal about her, she is simply a horrific person as a candidate for US president.

And this is another reason why TechCrunch is brilliant. Thanks for doing this. If anyone from the Giuliani camp is reading this… please get Rudy to do a podcast. I’m strongly leaning Giuliani, but the world of tech is a hugely important issue. Just because Washington, D.C., and the media rarely talk about technology, doesn’t mean it’s not important. If anything, they speak loudly, but we’ve got the votes.

Regarding important issues… I’m shocked no one has yet seconded the China questions. China has declared war on western search engines– how would the candidates deal with this? How about (ironically enough, given China’s other limitations on freedoms) their aggressive pushing of many technologies, while various interest groups in America are pulling us back? (As Duncan Riley pointed out, “It’s also interesting as an observer to note that web development is more free in a communist country than the US.”)

Those are some good, hard questions that TC has already raised recently– and the rest of the media sure isn’t raising them. Ask these questions!

@ Abbu:

did you read all of the post?

“One last note - we’re reaching out to candidates from all political parties in a nonpartisan manner. We want to hear from both sides of the aisle on these issues.”

I would like to hear his position on the overall Internet “economy”, and if he thinks we could be experiencing another Internet bubble. Baidu at $320, Google at $640, Blue Nile at $85, VMware at $100, etc. all trading at 100+ p/e multiples, while the average p/e of the S&P 500 is around 16. Not to mention VC investments that are still on the rise.

As the founder of Bain Capital — one of the largest private equity firms in the world — he is by far the most knowledgeable candidate in the area of finance.

Damn damn damn! TechCrunch used to be one of my few remaining politics-free havens. Now that TechCrunch has fallen, it’s down to icanhascheezburger.com.

China is holding their currency at low prices. One of the fundamentals of the US and its trade parters agreements is free floating currency.

In the short run it keeps the cost of Chinese goods down and allows China to win more business.

In the long run it creates a larger dependency on China, trade deficits, but most importantly it creates unfair competition with other Asian countries and the rest of the world (which cannot devalue their money/keep the value of their money low and will not be able to compete with China on price)

(Not to mention that the average Chinese worker cannot afford to leave China to go on vacation)

With China creating and unbalanced trade surplus they are in the dominating position with the world trade markets moving forward as they are able to build up a surplus of money. Some believe it is best to force China to float their currency now rather than 10-20 years from now, when they control more of the world trade.

What does Romney believe is the best strategy with China?

Let me make one thing perfectly clear:

My disdain for Hellary has nothing to do with her supposedly being a woman! I love women and would vote for one for president readily. But, let’s not vote for Klinton just because of gender: think back to that administration, all of the spies, lies, corruption, deaths, smears, immorality, backstabbing, laws broken, drugs, bribes, Chinese spies, payoffs, character assinations, assasinations, investigations, using dead people, theft, obfescations, stealing china, destruction of public property, threats to bimbos, assaults, rape accusations, sex not sex, asprin factory murders, tyrant coddling, Whtewatering, Rose law firming, missing files, DNA disapearance, Foster bodies, Lies in diaries, lawyers commiting suicide, hidden agendas, payoffs, Luewinskiing, coverups, mismanagements, bodies in the parks, bodies in the cell, bodies in the water, nuclear secrets being sold, FBI files stolen, blackmailings, ….. all with Hellary right smack dab in the middle either orchestrating or covering up!
Use your memories people!

Other than that I have nothing against her.
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

How about these:

- Do you support the federal E-Rate program, the initiative that subsidizes Internet access in low-income schools and libraries? Why or why not?

- No Child Left Behind mandates that all students must be “technologically literate” by the eighth grade but doesn’t expand on the subject. In your mind, what technology skills should every eighth grader possess, and why?

- The U.S. continues to struggle when it comes to producing enough college graduates who major in disciplines related to science, technology, engineering or math. What reforms would you make in K-12 education in order to increase the number of students who go on to college to study these disciplines?

- What do you think of MIT’s so-called $100 laptop? Do you see it offering any benefit to US students?

- Congress is currently considering legislation that would block access to online social networks at schools and libraries that accept federal E-Rate funding. Do you think this legislation would help protect kids against online threats, or does it undermine educators’ abilities to use the Internet creatively in their classrooms?

- How do you personally define the term “digital divide”? Do you believe there is still a digital divide in this country? Would you use that term to describe it, if you were president? What would you do as president to alleviate it?

The problem with Republicans is that they’ve lost their way. They aren’t running on a platform(except Ron Paul),….their whole platform is “Booo! Clinton might be president”…unfortunately for them that crap only works on the 25% of the country that are Republicans.

If they really want to defeat Clinton they need to reach out to independants. And the only way to do that is to nominate Ron Paul…because he is the only candidate who is against the Iraq war(30% of Republicans are against the war, 75% of independants are against the war, 90% of Democrats are against the war). Seriously if all these war mongerers put the Iraq war on the back burner, they’ll see that Ron Paul is the only conservative running. And if they took the time to reason through his positions on Foreign policy they’ll see that once again he is correct(guess thats what happens when you read the 9/11 commission report)

Now think about this for the 2008 election…the Republicans nominate Ron Paul..and instantly the Clintons lose their biggest advantage…the WAR! Right now a lot of people will back her based on the war issue alone…and independants(40% of the country) will swing Democrat because of this.

So if we nominate Ron Paul, we hijack this stance…because he has a better Iraq War record(voted against it, spoke out against it, and leading up to it warned about the exact same things that are currently happening), while she voted for it, and continues to fund it. + he has a 30 year record of doing what he preaches…so people will be less likely to scrutinize him
(with other candidates you have: oh so you want to be a fiscally conservative party? Then why did we have the biggest growth in deficit under Republican president and congress?).

And the important part is the Ron Paul wants to end the Iraq war because its the right thing to do, while Clinton wants to end because it was a Republican who started it. Democrats have ALWAYS been war mongerers, it was always Republicans that ended their wars.

Http://www.facebook.com/donel adams are ideas,networking and e-commerce solutions seeking partnerships and or sponsorships.Please consider DONADAMASSOCIATES on FACEBOOK.Thank You!

Andy, those are great questions. I am sure TC will be using at least one of your questions.

#2 is by far the most important question that should be confronted by all candidates. Aside from foreign language skills, the average US student is falling well behind international students when it comes to computer skills. I think your $100 laptop could make this a two part question.

Mike - This is a great idea, kudos! Speaking of Political Base, I added a link and recap over there to Mitt Romney’s main PB page, so others there might see and perhaps come here and ask questions as well. The forum thread is here in case you’d like to keep an eye on that as well:

http://www.politicalbase.com/f.....tions/872/

The 2008 election is important, we need to hear the candidates answering tough questions, not just softball questions. I hope that will be the case with these TC podcasts.

In order of importance:
- Immigration (H1B specifically - highly educated immigrants)
- The role of the government and the internet (what should be regulated, what not, should the govt do things like legislate against or block certain types of technology for workers or in relation to funding)
- The role of free markets; helping U.S. technology companies compete worldwide (net neutrality)
- How should the U.S. engage with China: technology, human rights and censorship issues
- Intellectual property issues - copyright, patent and trademark policies
- The role of government in protecting personal privacy online
- Mobile spectrum allocations and ground rules

I look forward to this podcast. The President faces thousands of issues when in office, not just the big ones. And they will sign legislation on thousands of issues, not just the big ones.

I would like to know:

- His position on “Net Neutrality”

- His position on Internet Commerce taxing

- His position on Government Education System vs Parents: Who is ultimately responsible and who is there created as a support system (looks like recently those roles have been reversed).

Question(s) for Mitt Romney - Two of them

1. With the increasing convergence of the internet and politics it would seem as though it is not improbable that one day voters in the United States will vote online. What are your thoughts on this? Specifically, do you think that dramatic effect this would have on campaign financing essentially make it implausible? (i.e currently the “horse race” system of politics reinforces the person/party who raises the most money, a digital revolution would essentially negate this aspect of politics, thereby marginalizing current power brokers)

2. You said, “If it means we have to go into a mosque to wiretap or a church, then that’s exactly where we are gonna go, because we are going to do whatever it takes to protect the American people.” How does this interact with the freedom of the internet? Specifically, how does this viewpoint differ from that of the Chinese government, which controls the content available to its citizen on the internet under the guise of national security? Doesn’t a free market approach–which you advocate–mean that the freedom of information and association are paramount?

1- another vote for : Net Neutrality and Internet taxation

2- I believe Romney made some negative comments about the democratic ‘internet-format’ debate - can’t find the reference just now, but I recall some sarcasm about not wanting to answer questions from a bunch of bloggers or sock-puppet videos (referring to the youtube question submissions). I’d like to hear his opinions on the relevance of ‘new media’ .e.g blogosphere vs. traditional news sources

3- in the michigan debate Romney made some references to ‘helping’ the region. He has ties to Detriot - what would he do to subsidize US automakers and how do you square that with allowing free-market competition so the best/greenest technologies will win?

4- Does he agree with allowing “intelligent design” aka creationism to be taught in schools, or that any state would require mention of ID as a valid alternative view in science classes?

5- I’d love to see Romney’s reaction if Ron Paul’s name gets mentioned a few times - compare and contrast himself with RP. In particular, how is it that RP has more cash-on-hand than Romney at this point, making him the #3 candidate by that measure?

“Immunizing the telcos would conflict with Article 9 of the US Constitution’s limit on ex post facto laws. Why or why not?”

I would love to hear his position on intellectual property protection. IP has been one of the cornerstones of this great economy and will prove to be even more important with globalization. Property rights not only provide incentive to individuals that are already here to innovate, they are also one of the incentives that bring many bright and hard working people into this country and keep them here.

I would like to hear how he is going to encourage new technology innovations and ADOPTION of new technologies that will help with Global Warming and the Oil Crisis.

thank you.

I hope TechCrunch manages to stay non-partisan, but I’m glad that someone is reaching out to the candidates around their positions regarding business and technology. Out of the topics mentioned thus far, I would be most interested in hearing about:

27) National ID cards
36) eVoting… and the lack of a paper trail
38) Warrantless Internet wiretapping for the NSA
39) Legal immigration

And I would add one more to the debate:

64) Centralized media ownership (e.g. Clear Channel, especially considering Bain’s involvement) and monopolies in general (e.g. the cell phone oligarchy and subsequent lack of consumer freedom)

How about doing a live video broadcast from of the interview and have people write in questions to Governor Romney on-the-fly. You can moderate the questions and then publish the recording as a podcast.

We can help do this at Veodia. Send us a note and we can help set it up.

My hot topics I’d like the candidates to address are:
1. How will you help accelerate US research in more sustainable energies (green, hybrid, biodiesel, etc)?
2. How can you see the federal government helping with the fledgling domestic automotive and manufacturing industries?
3. How can new technologies be integrated into government agencies to hold government workers to more accountability for their decisions?
4. With the introduction of web 2.0 innovative technologies in the consumer and corporate space, how do you see these improving the public sector?

Is stem cell research/biotech considered “tech” in this podcast, or would this be more about network-related tech (internet and wireless)?

I too would like to see a pointed question about China on the list. As the US is becoming service-based (and intellectual property heavy) we are relying on China for traditional manufacturing. Econ 101 teaches us the need for balanced trade — if China doesn’t participate in our new economy we are simply sending back container ships full of cash.

I would like to second #52’s request for a question regarding Math and Science education in K-12. For example, as president would Mr. Romney support a federal scholarship program that only awards funds to students if who achieve high grades in their math and science classes and agree to major in a math/science/technology/engineering field?

Great work Arrington and I’m proud to see Mitt — a Republican — the first to step up to the plate.

I’d like to see Mitt answer a question about Net Neutrality. I’ve blogged about this at TechRepublican with the conservative argument FOR and AGAINST Net Neutrality.

Keep up the great work,

David All

Ask him:
1. Will he declare the internet a public good, in the same way we think of water, electricity, highways, or public education?
2. Will he commit to providing affordable high-speed wireless Internet access nationwide, along with protecting and expanding unlicensed spectrum for public use, and make the Internet a reliable part of our infrastructure so that it deliver on its next phase, transforming how we do business, learn, play, participate in our democracy, stay secure, and govern?
3. Will he support a “Net Neutrality” standard forbidding Internet service providers from discriminating among content based on origin, application or type?
4. Does he support the idea of moving from “No Child Left Behind,” to making our goal “Every Child Connected”?
5. Will he 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. Will he support the idea of creating 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 and be able to have an emergency response capability to establish emergency communications, rebuild networks and databases, and provide tech support for all relief and recovery efforts?

More details on each of these ideas here: http://www.techpresident.com/petition

A question for Gov. Romney…

I have a question about America’s small businesses and the issue of Net Neutrality.

Net Neutrality is the principle upon which the Internet was created. It says the Internet should be a free-flowing marketplace where each website is equally accessible to Internet users — and the economic marketplace and marketplace of ideas can decide the online winners and losers.

But some phone companies have said they actually want to be the gatekeepers who decide which websites open properly on people’s computers, rigging the Internet’s level playing field.

Many groups, including the Christian Coalition and Gun Owners of America, have publicly called on elected leaders to support Net Neutrality because it protects free speech online. But my question today is about small business.

My buddy, Gary Maricle, is a small businessman in Albuquerque. He owns a chili shop as well as 20 chili-related e-commerce websites like http://www.NMchili.com. When I asked him about this issue, here’s what he said:

“Small businesses like mine depends on a neutral Internet, where the website of a small entrepreneur can be viewed just as easily as the site of a big corporation. A neutral Internet allows businesses to compete on merit, not based on which company can afford to pay gatekeepers like AT&T to have their site open more quickly than their competitors. We need our public leaders to declare their support for Net Neutrality so that small businesses and everyday families have an equal right to communicate online as giant corporations.”

Gov. Romney, will you pledge today to keep the Internet marketplace gatekeeper-free by supporting the principle of Net Neutrality?

Thanks,
Adam

@51
appreciate your reply and poetic use of the linguistic form. the laundry list of scandals, not your name. i am libertarian, btw.

@45
behavior analytics. very interesting. alias, i will address your post this weekend.

No problem baby.
BTW I’m Libertarian too.
Love your name.

I appreciate your appreciation of my masterful use of poetic linguistic form, I work hard to be concise yet entertaining (often failing but trying).
I truly believe that we would be better off with more women running things, however, Hellary is a poor choice. Her election would set women back far more than anything I can think of. Why? Because after her nobody would ever want another.

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

Please ask the candidates for opinions on software patents, DRM, & the tiered internet.

My question is at my name’s link. In order to understand whether he answered the question or not, please try to understand the nuances of this issue. Don’t let him simply read off what’s in his very superficial policy document:

lonewacko.com/blog/archives/007072.html

An aide said he supported one policy, but I’d like to hear it from him and I’d also like to verify that he isn’t just playing semantic games:

lonewacko.com/blog/archives/007143.html

Note that Fred Thompson has released a document more detailed than Romney’s in which he explicity supports this policy:

lonewacko.com/blog/archives/007171.html

Since it’s his general area, I would like to know if he has any plans/ideas on small business finance, the SBA and such.

Don’t know when the interview is scheduled. If you haven’t conducted the interview, please ask him about the slower/lower adoption rate of broadband in the US and the slower broadband performance when compared to many European and Asian countries.