It’s sadly clear that our current leaders have little understanding of technology and why it’s important to our economy and culture. That has to change.
We’ve been interviewing 2008 presidential candidates for the last few months to get them to state, on record, their positions on ten key technology related issues (Barack Obama, John McCain, John Edwards, Mitt Romney, Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich).
In December we announced that we were also holding a Tech President primary here at TechCrunch, where readers could vote on the candidate that they thought had the best policies on these ten key issues. The poll ended yesterday, and the results can be seen here. Barack Obama won the Democrat side, with 60% of the votes (John Edwards took second). Ron Paul won the Republican vote with 73% of those votes (John McCain took second).
Those results are meaningful indicators of how our readers feel about the candidates. In addition, taking into account those votes as well as our own analysis, we are endorsing one candidate from each party: Barack Obama for the Democrats and John McCain for the Republicans.
Senator Barack Obama - Democrat
Senator Obama has put more time and effort into defining his technology policies than any other candidate. In November he released a detailed position paper on technology issues, and we had a one-on-one interview with him two weeks later.
He is staunchly in favor of net neutrality, and has promised to make it a priority to reinstate it in his first year in office. He has proposed intelligent programs for increasing technology education and access to children. He doesn’t believe the FCC went far enough in their proposed rules for opening up the 700MHz spectrum auctions. He wants to see increases in the number of H1-B visas given out each year. He strongly supports research into renewable energy sources and he has a realistic, market based approach to capping carbon emissions.
More importantly, though, Senator Obama talks about the future with a sense of optimism that the other candidates seem to lack. America has done great things in the past, and we can do great things in the future, so long as our leaders support our home-grown and immigrant entrepreneurs, or at least get out of the way. Jobs will be lost in some sectors, but growth in technology can drive our economy ever forward. Senator Obama seems to understand that, and has spent a great deal of time addressing technology issues and talking to Silicon Valley leaders. Some of the other Democratic candidates have staked out similar positions as Senator Obama on tech issues - but I get the sense that they are playing “me too” rather than showing real leadership and thoughtfulness on the issues.
Senator Obama also continues to surge when it comes to using the Internet to amplify his voice. I talked about his online surge earlier this month.
Senator Obama is the candidate of optimism and leadership, and he will be getting my personal vote.
Senator John McCain - Republican
Choosing Senator Obama for our Democrat endorsement was relatively easy. We had a lot more trouble with the Republicans. The trouble comes because, based on their positions on the issues, none of them are the perfect candidate. The leading candidates - Romney, Huckabee and McCain - all have flaws. And while Ron Paul won the TechCrunch primary by a very large margin, he too has flawed technology policies - not the least of which is that he is staunchly against net neutrality, and doesn’t want the FCC to get too involved with spectrum allocation rules.
The problems stem from Republicans’ general rule to “let the market decide,” which appeals to my libertarian leanings but can cause real problems in a monopoly-type markets. People tend to have few choices when it comes to Internet or mobile providers. In those cases using government to force a level playing field and open access is what actually stimulates economic growth. Republicans also tend to shy away from “green” issues such as pollution (carbon emissions), and alternative fuel research. Finally, their reluctance to get the Federal government involved directly in education means that they avoid issues like increasing math and science curriculums in public schools, or providing Federal funding or incentives to address the digital divide (in particular, getting computers and Internet into schools). Their resulting policies tend to put off technology focused voters.
Taking all of the Republican candidates positions into consideration, as well as TechCrunch reader voting, we are endorsing Senator McCain as the best candidate from that side of the aisle. Senator McCain, more so than any other Republican candidate, is at least willing to go on record on any issue we brought up in our interview with him.
He is standoffish on net neutrality, mobile spectrum rules and the digital divide. And he has voted against some bills to fund renewable energy research.
But he’s made it clear that he’ll address inequities that arise from his hands-off policies on net neutrality and mobile allocations, which other Republican candidates refuse to do. And his positions on Internet Taxes, H1-B visas, China/human rights violations and other issues are strongly pro-technology. Romney and, to a lesser extent Huckabee, by contrast, have shown little inclination to even discuss their position on these issues.
Senator McCain also has more pure leadership experience than any other candidate running for office. He is the elder statesman of the election, and that experience counts for something. Finally, his pro-business leanings will do much to promote the technology economy in the U.S.
Now, as an aside, McCain did say that he was “illiterate” when it comes to computers, which isn’t uncommon for his generation. His campaign has clarified that position somewhat since then, and it’s clear that McCain has surrounded himself with enough technically savvy individuals that he’s likely to avoid a “series of tubes” type comment down the road. Frankly, I don’t give a damn if McCain ever turns on a computer or not. I just want a president who has the right top-down polices to support the information economy or, as I said above, be smart enough to just get out of our way and let us do our thing.
For additional information resources, check out Yahoo’s Election Dashboard, Political Base and TechPresident (unaffiliated with us).
So Ron Paul had almost 3/4 of the vote, and you pick McCain? this most likely means that John McCain had a single digit showing, yet you pick him? Way to honor the intelligence of your followers.
VOTE FOR RON PAUL FOR PRESIDENT!
> Michael
“And some of [Paul's] policies on net neutrality and 700 mghz, and education, are just not good for the country.”
Defend your position, please.
@Typos
I apologise for the typos, I forgot to check the third paragraph of my first comment, it’s a real mess.
Should have been:
I don’t think you quite read/understood his positions. He is against Government regulation of the internet because he believes that No government should have the power to decide what you should read or not read, see and not see, he wants the internet free.
So, again, how’s that a bad technology policy?
I am a nobody that plans on voting for Ron Paul, not McWarin. Additionally, this nobody votes to reduce your reader count by one.
” no one is really planning on voting for him.”…
well, except for me and, oh, about 99,789 other people and counting so far…
Techcrunch, you have forsaken the entire internet for not endorsing Ron Paul.
There is no way in hell that he’s not the Tech President.
Techcrunch? Who the hell cares what or whom they “endorse”? Nobodys.
wait a sec, I thought I was reading TechPresident… somehow I ended up at the New York Times website instead. Sorry!
I don’t care that you didn’t pick Paul, what I do care about is that you selected McCain just because “more so than any other Republican candidate, is at least willing to go on record on any issue we brought up in our interview with him” meaning you picked him because he played ball with you when other candidates brushed you aside. Since when does ignoring an insignificant blogger’s silly questions make you worse off than a man that “is standoffish on net neutrality, mobile spectrum rules and the digital divide. And he has voted against some bills to fund renewable energy research”. I’d rather take my chances with someone who hasn’t talked to you about the issues yet than take someone like that who is also so prowar that we’ll all be fighting and mourning too much to care about his stance on tech issues.
I do not see how supporting 100 years of war and a draft is a good thing. As for Bill’s comment I have a better one. Supporting McCain is like supporting Hitler as just like Hitler, McCain wants more wars.
Don’t take me word for it…
Source…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....83459.html
100 Year source…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf7HYoh9YMM
True insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
The Doctor has the Cure Vote Ron Paul
@ Rob Biddle
That’s not true. Obama has, perhaps, the most comprehensive plan of all the candidates. All it takes is actually going to his site. This first one lays it all out.
1. “The Blueprint for Change - Obama’s Plan for America” (64 Pages)
http://www.barackobama.com/pdf.....Change.pdf
2. “Political positions of Barack Obama”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.....rack_Obama
The bottom external links in the wiki provide more resources, of course.
What a crappy site. I’ll be sure not to visit here again.
I find it disturbing that you should choose to not endorse Ron Paul when it is fairly obvious who your readers endorse. Also, you site “real problems in a monopoly-type markets” as it relates to “Internet or mobile providers” as the foundation of your decision not to endorse Ron Paul. It is very clear by reading Ron Paul’s literature on the subject that his philosopihies on “free markets” as they pertain to the internet concern CONTENT and really have nothing to do with “Internet or mobile providers”. When barriers to entry such as government regulations are cleared to allow for pure competition in an industry like the Internet, anyone even basically educated in business can tell you that when market segments make money, they will draw in competition. Congressman Paul’s record on technology and the Internet are clear and his comittment and consistency in this regard are laudable.
You have lost one subscriber by this poor choice and I hope the free-market teaches you just how unforgiving it can be when a product no longer serves to provide quality.
WOW!!! Techcrunch, you are dropping the ball! 3 days ago I’m browsing and see that Ron Paul and O’Bama are winning by a landside in your poll….today, you say McCain is the winner? WTF guys? First the crunchies BS and now this. Unreal!!! What is this, FOX news? ANyone else care to boycott Techcrunch for this nonsense?
You posted a poll that said you WOULD back whom ever won your damn poll… and now you pull this shit… So in other words, you just flip-flopped, and used the paul people to boost site stats…
Your a joke, your sites a joke, and Ill never be coming back… Thanks for the Integrity Crunch.
Boycott TechCrunch… never again will I come here, or have anything to do with them…
So net neutrality and FCC regulation of the government is a good thing?
Don’t try to act like you’ll represent your readership in the future Michael, disgraceful.
Barack Obama is the best candidate on tech issues as well as most other issues and leadership. He will get my vote and I hope yours.
If you have an issue with Paul’s positions then maybe you should pull the “libertarian” label off of your Facebook profile broheim. I know it’s in vogue right now to call yourself a libertarian but if you cannot walk the walk don’t talk the talk.
I think this article is just to draw traffic to this site. Because you knew the Ron Paul Revolution would flood the site. Pathetic!
McLame is a joke Mike. I thought you had more smarts than this.
He is the worst of the bunch and is not what this country needs.
Be careful what you wish for mate.
I’m sorry to see that you’ve decided to ignore your reader’s opinions. Do you think that we haven’t done any research on the issues? While I like my internet access neutral, I really don’t want the federal government to get into regulating the internet. It should be obvious to everyone that once they begin regulating something, they can’t help but adding more and more regulations.
And, by the way, I already voted for Ron Paul in Michigan’s January 15th primary.
Kudos to the TC staff for picking the electable Republican candidate in John McCain.
OBAMA ‘08 though.
Kudos to the TC staff for picking the electable Republican candidate in John McCain.
—————————————
“electable”
The headline is all wrong it should say “Michael Arringtons Presidential Endorsements”.
Yeah Webside, you democrats would love to McCain to get the nomination - he’ll get murdered by the democrats in the general election… so much dirt to dig up.
This is a joke. Michael, I enjoy your tech news on startups. I was even excited when I saw that you were interviewing presidential candidates. But it’s clear from this disaster that you are a just too heavy handed to be in a position to speak for the technology community in any way.
Your writing implies that your positions on these issues are in some way what TC readers think or worse yet— what the tech community as a whole thinks. Youso obviously -know- what is ‘just not good for the country’.
I get that the poll isn’t scientific and the ronbots inflated the numbers. But, the ignoring of the polling just exacerbates the already present sense that you just personally picked your favorites and misused your own readers. The only reason the candidates gave you the time of day was do to your readers… yet your sentiment is arbitrary, dismissive and arrogant toward the idea that many of your readers may not agree with you on many issues.
I hope that this episode demonstrates to you the difference between amusingly arbitrary opinions on tech startups and the representation of your readers in politics. It’s a very different scenario and your first approach at it isn’t sitting too well with many of your readers. I hope it’s a learning experience and next time you’ll take a less heavy handed approach.
So many losers have nothing better to do than whine. Code something than read useless crap.
I think Obama should be the only candidate that TechCrunch should endorse. I am an entrepreneur and been in the technology field and in my opinion no one other than Obama deserves to be selected. I have been following all tech issues for the past 20 years and most politicians dont have a clue.
I dont understand why are we getting some right wing comments to a silicon valley tech blog. ?!!! Guys go back to your “south” and read some gospel. Think about ways to “protect” children (spoiled teens)
I just went ahead and read all the rules and regulations regarding voting in this site. I dont see anythig wrong in Michael having these choices. This is his site, goddammit!
Mike,
This is laughable. McCain, who admittedly doesn’t use a computer or email, as the next “tech president!?”
Piss off the rabid Paul fans at your peril, apparently.
He doesn’t like your candidate, folks. He has that right. Stop being such whiny babies about it.
Ron Paul won the “Tech Crunch Primary” and he loses the endorsement.
So the logic is if McCain wins all the state primaries Ron Paul gets the endorsement from the Republican Party.
The funny thing is Ron Paul is the only candidate who wasn’t hesitant to talk about internet rights… I didn’t realize Tech Crunch had a lot of kiss ups in their staff. Way to listen to the readers …
Good luck when AT&t cuts most of your traffic…
Congratulations, Michael, for ignoring the voices of the Intertube and going with your own good sense. For a Web 2.0 evangelist, that must have been difficult.
Don’t know if you read my comment in the original request, but that pretty much explains my position re both candidates. Except of course that back then I was positive about Ron Paul, because I thought he might be less loony than his supporters. Since then we’ve learnt that he’s either a foaming racist, or allows foaming racists to write articles under his byline.
I’m sorry to break this to the majority of posters who’ve been bussed into this thread, but Ron Paul is a tit. His supporters are less than tits. Areolae, you could say. He’s the candidate of those cats who fall down stairs in YouTube videos. If United States democracy worked along the same lines as Digg and had ‘power users’ or ’super users’ or whatever, he’d probably win, but thank God, it doesn’t and he won’t.
67’s comment that if you’re a libertarian, you must support Ron Paul is extremely revealing. No true libertarian would ever write a sentence that contained the words ‘you must’ or ‘you should’. Ron Paul’s fanbase isn’t libertarian, it’s cultish. It’s “We are we, and if you are not we in every single respect, you are they, and they are damned”. Binary thought at its best - the perfect match to the 1s and 0s of the Internet, and completely adrift from the real, 3-dimensional universe.
Internet taxes can be scary and extremely dangerous to U.S economy. Most companies is against Internet tax is Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Dell, Oracle, Facebook, Yahoo, ASK, cisco, intel, Myspace, Youtube, Sony, and all internet companies.
Most of people will not go online or purchase anything on triple taxation. Kids will not go online for wikipedia or do book report. Christmas sales won’t be good either. It will hurt 90% startups and airline tickets, movie ticket sales.
Release this internet tax is like triggering perl harbor’s surprise attack. In addition, internet tax can always be political crime & defraud companies millions dollars.
Can you get refund? I don’t think so.
What a sellout !
The logic of a spineless coward - “oh, we can’t win so I’ll just go with the establishment so I don’t have to be afraid of looking bad”.
Grow some balls man - learn to fight for your beliefs - if you have any.
[My comment is lost in moderation because it had 2 links, I guess. Breaking them apart...]
@ Rob Biddle
That’s not true. Obama has, perhaps, the most comprehensive plan of all the candidates. All it takes is actually going to his site. This first one lays it all out.
1. “The Blueprint for Change - Obama’s Plan for America” (64 Pages)
http://www.barackobama.com/pdf…..Change.pdf
‘Ron Paul supporters tend to support their man online - but the endorsements are not a popularity contest.’
But then again, this is online media. Your readers are the people who live online. Ron Paul has the biggest support amongst the online crowd so no wonder he’s coming in first in an online poll.
I mean, what you are saying is basically that the voting results in Florida, New Hampshire or any other state are not valid because they do not take into consideration the views of the people in, say, Montana.
Don’t get me wrong, you’re free to say whatever you like on your blog, but then do not pretend to be asking your readers for their opinion on the matter only to reject them if they don’t match your own personal views.
Furthermore, regarding the actual political issues themselves: You’re basically saying that more taxes, more regulation and more government are beneficial to technological and economic development and that ‘too much’ freedom on the other hand is detrimental?
What about privacy issues and civil liberties? Don’t you think these are of great importance to the tech crowd, too? Creativity and progress require freedom of thought.
Link Correction:
“The Blueprint for Change - Obama’s Plan for America” (64 Pages)
http://www.barackobama.com/pdf.....Change.pdf
Ron Paul is the only canidate that has promised to keep the internet free of GOV. regulations. It would seem you have shown your hand & you are in favor of GOV. control. This is a good thing for your readers to know about you.
Hey, let’s take a poll and see who the TechCrunch readers want to endorse. Then when one of them receives an overwhelming majority, let’s just throw that out with a one sentence dismissal.
Very, very bad form.
Micheal - this was either the greatest link bait ever, so congrats.
or if you wanted this to go smoothly you should have just announced the winners as the vote stands and leave all personal opinion for a seperate post. Merging the 2 has convinced the RonPaulites that the conspiracy is growing and you’re part of it.
Next time Ron Paul wins a poll with a 73% poll you might want to leave him 1st. (Even though 90% of Pauls votes came from one machine spoofing its IP address.)
It’s funny how politics brings out peoples true colors. Now we can boycott TechCruch along with Fox News.
From now on whenever poll results are thrown out due to person opinions of the system administrators we can just say.. “Oh, they pulled a TechCrunch!”
Well, this is rather disapointing… I liked TC, but forget this, if they are going to think that one persons opinion > every one elses. Why even waste your time with the poll, why waste your time saying that endorcements will be picked on who wins the poll, if you are just going to shove your opinion down every one elses throat anyways. And, not only that, but you seem to have a leaning towards facism (Net Neutrality, because there is no telling how far the gov’t would take that), and obviously did not do more then a 2 minute research on the canidates or their issues.
Way to be opinionated, i’de like to see you respond to the multiple intelgent comments post here, but your silence is pretty self-incriminating that you were wrong, you know it, and you dont want to admit it.
Was nice looking at TC before i found this =\
“Ron Paul is the only canidate that has promised to keep the internet free of GOV. regulations. It would seem you have shown your hand & you are in favor of GOV. control. This is a good thing for your readers to know about you.”
To reframe the issue: Ron Paul is the only candidate that has promised to let corporations rape the Internet as much as they like.
Until Ron Paul turned out to be against it, Net Neutrality was a big tech issue that just about everyone on the various tech sites liked and promoted. Suddenly it’s a bad thing?
If America somehow doesn’t vote Obama or a President who acknowledges Global Warming and your part in it into the White House it will remain a huge joke to the rest of world!
I support creative idea like internet tax… But, not good idea.
I’ve tried it for 3 years research. Failed alot.
There is no business model for eCommerce.
> Boycott TechCrunch… never again will I come here, or have anything to do with them…
Dear Ron Paul Nutjobs,
Please follow in the principled footsteps of your fellow nutjob above.
Warmest regards,
Sane America
From the article: “Finally, their reluctance to get the Federal government involved directly in education means that they avoid issues like increasing math and science curriculum in pubic schools”
Being in a family of teachers (wife, mother and father) you would be blown away at the unbelievably silly, ridiculous, and pathetic policies and politics that rule public schools here in the US.
Just this year, my wife has 7 kids that can hardly speak English in her class (she cannot speak Spanish and she can’t communicate with the parents becasue they don speak English..would these children not be better served with a teacher that can properly communicate with them!) on top of that she has a student that very clearly should be in a special education class but he is not because the school administration says …I kid you not…he is too low for special ed!!
This is a normal 2nd grade class room…in the 5th grade there was a 15 year old who was bumped to 9th grade after the Christmas break.
Sadly this is the norm…every year it’s a new group of children and a more unbelievable set of circumstances…I don’t know how teachers do it but I greatly respect them.
@Poker Sharks:
You’re blaming the Ron Paul supporters for believing in a giant conspiracy and yet, you are the one promoting a conspiracy theory. Or do you actually have any proves of your IP spoofing claim?
So you picked someone that has absolutely no understanding of the internet, will seek to enact Orwellian legislation regulating and restricting it and who has no problem with perpetual war and the end of civil liberties as we know them- over Ron Paul, the champion of the Constitution?
“No one’s planning on voting for him”- Except myself and almost everyone I talk to, including all of the people who’d never heard of him because the mainstream media tries to ignore him hoping he’ll go away. Considering his policy stances are researched and represent the people, not the government, that should tell you something. Paul is against Net Neutrality because he believes it is not within the government’s power to say ANYTHING regarding free speech on the internet. The protection of personal rights is safeguarded by property rights and libel laws. If an actual crime is committed, agents of the law can follow up on that but to even allow government to make regulations at will regarding the internet is to ask for FCC-like monopoly making.
The internet has, save for its original government support, been an exercise in free-market economics. It’s proven that the vast exchange of unencumbered information leads to unrestrained creativity and also great wealth for those who have workable ideas. In other words, it’s been everything that would have been in the United States in general if not for government interference.
Allowing the government to step in and do to the internet what they do to bandwidth and disaster relief, not to mention taxation and openly spying, is absurd and Unconstitutional. Only Ron Paul will stand up for your rights on these and other issues. How you can even think of a technophobe who doesn’t even understand economics, let alone the internet like McCain is insane.